SHARJAH: Jason Roy is “unbelievably important” for England and the team hope the injured opener can play some part in the knockout stage of the Twenty20 World Cup, captain Eoin Morgan said on Saturday.

Roy retired hurt with a calf injury during England’s 10-run loss to South Africa in their final Super 12 match even though Morgan’s team still qualified for the last four as the Group I leaders.

“It obviously didn’t look great, and we’ll wait until tomorrow to see what his movement is like,” Morgan said of Roy’s injury. “Probably send him for a scan and then go from there. Apart from that, can’t tell you much.”

A visibly emotional Roy was helped off the ground and the 31-year-old was seen on crutches after the match.

“Obviously we’re all hopeful that he comes through in some manner or there’s some remedy to get him through one, if not two games,” Morgan said. “He’s unbelievably important. He’s a guy that epitomises everything that we are about in the changing room and the way that we play.”

Morgan said the team has got enough back up to deal with injuries and pull outs.

“Like you go through the names that either aren’t here through injury or other reasons, so you go through Archer, Stokes, Sam Curran, Ben [Foakes], Tymal Mills and now possibly Jason,” said Morgan.

“You look back at the times that you have really explored and tried to build a bigger squad, and I’m sitting here thankful that we have actually done that because we are going need those guys possibly in the next game or the final.”

England are bidding to become the first team to hold the 20-overs and the 50-overs World Cups at the same time and won their first four Super 12 matches before South Africa snapped that streak.

“We are not going to be at our best every game but we do need to find ways to win,” Morgan said. “I think in the field, actually, we weren’t as intense as we have been in previous games. Just small things that we didn’t do as neatly or as cleanly as we would have liked.”

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2021