Roy ruled out, Sixers’ star called into England’s T20 squad

James Vince, who helped lead Sydney Sixers to successive KFC BBL titles, has been called up by England to replace injured opener Jason Roy in their T20 World Cup squad.

Roy, who had scored 123 runs in five innings at a strike-rate of 138.2 and an average of 30.75, suffered a calf injury running a single against South Africa in the final pool game.

A scan has since revealed he can take no further part in the tournament.

Vince has been in the UAE as a travelling reserve. He has not played a T20I since 2019 but is an experienced T20 cricketer having played for franchises in several countries - though not the Indian Premier League - for five years.

He played a key role in Sydney Sixers' KFC BBL|10 title with an unbeaten 98 in the qualifier and 95 in the final.

He followed that in the English summer by making his first international century in a 50-over match, against Pakistan in July.

England could choose to reshuffle their batting order for their semi-final against New Zealand at 1am AEDT on Thursday by promoting Johnny Bairstow or Moeen Ali to open and bringing the Sydney Thunder's Sam Billings into the middle order, or opt for an extra bowler.

Before the extent of his injury was known, England captain Eoin Morgan said Roy was “unbelievably important” setting the tempo at the start of the innings along with Jos Buttler.

England have already lost Tymal Mills to injury and arrived without Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer and Sam Curran.

“I'm gutted to be ruled out of the World Cup. It is a bitter pill to swallow,” Roy said.

“I will be staying on to support the boys, and hopefully, we can go all the way and lift that trophy.

“It has been an unbelievable journey so far, and we have to continue expressing ourselves and concentrating on us.

“The rehab has already started, and even though I've torn my calf, I'm going to give myself the best chance of being ready for the T20 tour of the Caribbean at the start of next year.”

Roy scored 78 off 44 balls when England beat New Zealand in the semi-final of the 2016 T20 World Cup and was a key figure in the team’s 2019 ODI World Cup win where England lost the only two games he missed.

2021 Men's T20 World Cup

Semi-finals

Nov 10: England v New Zealand, Abu Dhabi (6pm local, 1am Nov 11 AEDT)

Nov 11: Pakistan v Australia, Dubai (6pm local, 1am Nov 12 AEDT)

Final

Nov 14: TBC v TBC, Dubai (6pm local, 1am Nov 15 AEDT)

All matches live and exclusive on Fox Cricket, available on Kayo Sports.

Click here for the full 2021 ICC T20 World Cup schedule

Click here for the full squads for all 16 teams

How the teams are grouped

Round 1

Group A: Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands, Namibia

Group B: Bangladesh, Scotland, Papua New Guinea, Oman

Super 12s

Group 1: England, Australia, South Africa, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh

Group 2: India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Afghanistan, Scotland, Namibia