Highlights
- Aalex Hales was picked up by Kolkata Knight Riders earlier this year
- Hales has been brought in by the England Cricket Board as a replacement for Jonny Bairstow
- Alex Hales is returning to international cricket after 3 years
ENG vs PAK, 1st T20: An ardent lover of darts, Alex Hales after his return to the English team, will have his eyes set only on one target, the target to solidify his place in the team and make up for his lost days on the international stage. The England Cricket Board recently surprised everybody with their inclusion of Alex Hales. The English cricket board had initially included Jonny Bairstow in their squad, but a freak injury to the wicketkeeper-batsman forced him out of the World Cup.
The English team wasted no further time and included Hales in their setup, thus ending a three-year-long tug-of-war between the batsman and the board. Hales on many occasions has been extremely vocal about how he was never expecting a return to the national side and thought that his chance as an international player was over. But, amidst all the chaos around him, Hales kept on striving hard and going on, he continued playing franchise cricket all over the world and scarcely believed that one fine day an opportunity will come around.
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Hales had initially planned to spend the month of October with his girlfriend on a vacation, but the recent change in his fortune has landed him in Karachi where he will be competing against the Babar Azam-led Pakistan side in a seven-match long T20I series. The right-handed English batter will want to use these matches to get his groove back and prepare himself for the upcoming mega event which is the T20I World Cup, scheduled to be played in Australia later this year.
Hales recently opened up about his discussion with England's managing director Rob Key and said
I was pretty firm and forceful when I rang him. I wanted to understand the concrete reasoning behind them leaving me out and had questions regarding my chances of playing for the national side, I anyways had nothing to lose. I felt like that I deserved another chance if it was cricketing merit
The right-handed batsman also opened up on how he called Buttler up on the same day and asked the same questions. Hales, who has now been recalled will now want to prove himself in the international arena and avoid the mistakes that he has committed in the past.