Anyway, taking Hales as baseline for "atrocious":
He's 5th on the list of runs scored by England openers since Strauss' retirement (out of 20)
12th by average
4th by the number of 50s
9th by high score
That's an indictment if there ever was one.
Blimey, I was going purely by memory rather than anything. I suppose maybe there was an element of failing to live up to hype with Hales (coming in as "the English answer to David Warner") whereas with Roy everyone knew he'd be shite so nobody was surprised.