2019 was a massive year for English opener Alex Hales as he was dropped from the national squad across formats when he failed a drug test because of recreational use of substances. And while we thought this ban on international cricket may be for a few months, he was ignored for all major ICC events and didn’t play a single game for England since then, nearly 3.5 years down the line now.
He continued scoring runs for fun in leagues like the Vitality T20 Blast, the Big Bash League, and elsewhere. But when you see him being 33 years old, everyone though that his international career was more or less over. Until earlier today, when Hales was given a shock recall to the national side, being called in as Jonny Bairstow’s replacement for the upcoming 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia.
Alex Hales gets shock international recall
We don’t even think that Hales saw this coming but it has to be the right call. He’s been brilliant in T20 and List A cricket across tournaments over many years now, and has a great record in the Big Bash too, in Australia where the T20 World Cup takes place later this year. Also, we believe 3 years was a very long period of punishment for him.
Several reports said that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) wouldn’t consider him for international cricket ever again but now, they’ve been left with no choice as a few injuries have been plaguing them and England has not got a consistent opener in the shorter formats since a long time now. Even Jason Roy was dropped due to consistently low scores (See all T20 World Cup 2022 squads)
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It was in March 2019 that Hales was last seen in English colours and given his current form, we’d think he should slot right into the best English playing eleven for the 2022 T20 World Cup. The England Cricket official social media handles posted to inform their followers about Hales’ inclusion and return to the national side. See here:
Alex Hales has also been added to our squads for the #T20WorldCup and IT20 tour of Pakistan 🏏
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) September 7, 2022
The statement on the ECB website read, “Nottinghamshire batter Alex Hales has been called up to England’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup squad as a replacement for Yorkshire’s Jonathan Bairstow after a left ankle injury sustained last week ended his chances of playing in the tournament.” He is part of the main squad and not part of the reserves travelling to Australia with the team.
Incidentally, ECB put up a tweet yesterday on their laws related to anti-doping and the penalties involved for the same. They pinned the tweets to their Twitter account, so it’s safe to say they knew this move was going to be announced on Wednesday, 7th Sep 2022, and wanted to avoid backlash from those lobbying against Hales making a comeback after his doping ban.
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