Jason Roy is a 25 year-old batsman who plays for Surrey and England. Born in Durban, South Africa, Jason moved to England along with his family when he was 10 years old. Roy was educated at Whitgift School and represented Surrey in age group cricket from U-11 through to Under-19 and Surrey Academy level. He took part in the Surrey Under-19 tour to South Africa in 2007, where he notably top-scored for Surrey with an innings of 51 in a one-day match against Western Province Under-19s.
Roy began the 2010 season as a regular in the Surrey Second XI in both Championship (three-day) and Trophy (one-day) cricket. Roy made his first significant contributions to the team in May, scoring centuries in three successive Championship matches, against Essex, Sussex and Durham respectively.
Later in the season, representing Surrey’s first team, Roy made a name for himself as a big-hitter as he made history by scoring an unbeaten century against Kent (101 from only 57 balls), the first century scored by a Surrey batsman in Twenty20 cricket, to help them win the game by 38 runs.
Roy earned further plaudits with another aggressive innings against Somerset, scoring 74 from 50 balls in a Surrey victory to cement his reputation as a crowd pleaser. After securing his first team spot in 2011, Jason’s form saw him named on the England Performance Programme for the 2011/12 season. Roy had an impressive 2012 season before he took part in the Bangladesh Premier League in the winter months. He returned to Surrey for the 2013 season and featured constantly throughout the YB40, with a highlight of scoring a match-winning century against Scotland at the Oval and the FLt20 as Surrey made it to the final at Edgbaston for the first time since 2006.
2014 was a huge year for Jason, with the big-hitter winning the crown of top run scorer in the Natwest T20 Blast. An amazing 677 runs from 431 balls saw him earn a call up to the England side for their T20 International match against India in September. Despite making only eight runs, Roy showed glimpses of what he’d been offering for Surrey that season. At the end of 2014, Jason signed for Sydney Thunder in the BBL04, opening the batting in three matches alongside Jacques Kallis. Following this stint, Jason travelled to Sri Lanka after being named in the England Performance Programme, starring with the bat, scoring 261 runs from four innings. Roy was then named in OPTA’s Team of the Year to cap off an amazing season.
The superstar has a huge future ahead of him, having made his England ODI debut last year, as well as winning World Cricket batsman of the month for September 2015. Having formed a formidable partnership with fellow opener Alex Hales during the ODIs versus South Africa in 2016, Roy continued his sensational start to the year by being instrumental in England’s road to the World T20 Final, and later being named in the T20 Team of the Tournament.