Alex Hales was one of the instrumental players for England in their World Cup-winning campaign and going forward, he would only want to focus all his energies on the shortest format of the game.
In a media interaction, Hales was asked if he saw himself playing the ODI World Cup next year in India, he said, "I don't know but I think going forward I would concentrate on playing T20Is for England and franchise cricket. I haven't put much thought into ODIs," Hales told PTI during a zoom interaction arranged by Team Abu Dhabi which will take part in the T10 league in the Emirates."
Hales believes that playing in Asia, especially in the UAE, had given him a chance to improve his overall game against spin.
Learnings From The Subcontinent
"On the subcontinent, pitches more often do not tend to have a bias towards spin, and you have to make sure you adapt your methods. And I think that's one of the key things as a franchise cricketer."
"As you're playing tournaments in different countries and conditions all year round, so you have to keep topping up on certain areas of your game all the time, otherwise you soon get found out," he explained the reason behind picking the T10 league.
Team Abu Dhabi will open their campaign in Abu Dhabi T10 against the Deccan Gladiators in the second game on November 23.
Among the most destructive batters in world cricket currently, Hales' life in the fast lane has been a storied one. But, whenever, Hales has picked up his bat and walked out, he has provided ample evidence of his explosive abilities, which he hopes to replicate in the Abu Dhabi T10.
Specialsts For Every Format
Hales is now primarily a one-format player and has last played first-class cricket in 2018. He believes that quitting red ball cricket has helped him improve his T20 game as it's no longer feasible to play all formats.
"I think it's exceptionally difficult to play all three formats at the top level. I think there's only a handful of cricketers who are probably good enough to excel at all three," he said.
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Hales believes in future all three formats will have specialists. "Since I gave up the red ball format in 2018, my T20 game has improved a lot and quickly as well. And the way things are going, I think it will see more and more specialists in each format," he signed off.
As far as the World Cup is concerned, Alex Hales hit 212 runs in 6 matches at a strike rate of 147.22.
(Inputs PTI)
