Alex Hales has received his first England call up since 2019 after the Notts Outlaws and Trent Rockets star batter was selected as a replacement for the time-out taking Jonny Bairstow for the upcoming Twenty20 World Cup.
After helping Trent Rockets to winning the Hundred over the last month, Hales who has had a turbulent past with England, returns to a squad which will tour Pakistan in September before going on to Australia, where they’ll start their World Cup campaign against Afghanistan in Perth on 22nd October.
Now aged 33, Hales has not played for his country since being dropped ahead of the 50 over world cup which England went on to win in 2019, after he was suspended for failing a test for recreational drug use and prior to that, he was also suspended by the ECB following an incident with Ben Stokes outside a Bristol nightclub.
Previous England captain Eoin Morgan had said that “there was a breakdown of trust between Hales and the team” but since his resignation this summer, Joss Butler has headed selection policy with England’s Director of Cricket Rob Key who stated that “Hales has done his time”.
With the bat, the player has been magnificent this summer and a key reason alongside his opening team-mate Dawid Malan as to why Trent Rockets went on to top their table and win a Lords final.
In T20 internationals Hales averages over 31 with a highest score of 116 not out and a whopping strike rate of 136.65 in 60 matches.
Hales joins fellow Rocket, Malan, in the squads for Pakistan and the World Cup whilst Nottinghamshire’s Ben Duckett also makes the cut for the T20 series in Pakistan with Lancashire’s former Notts star Luke Wood who also impressed for Trent Rockets this summer.
Neither Wood, nor Duckett have made the world cup reserve list but will hope to show what they can do with the first of seven T20 matches against Pakistan to be played on September 20th in Karachi.
*Main image @TrentBridge Alex Hales returns to the England fold after a three year absence.
