Alex Hales to choose franchise cricket over international duty

Alex Hales (Source: Twitter)

The English swashbuckling opener, Alex Hales, has decided to choose franchise cricket over playing for England. He has reportedly decided to skip the upcoming tour of Bangladesh to play in the Pakistan Super League. 

Alex Hales played a crucial role in England's championship run in the recently concluded edition of the T20 World Cup. After three years, the opener was seen featuring for the national team, and he was brought in as the replacement for the injured Jonny Bairstow. Hales repaid the faith shown by the selection committee scoring 212 runs in the tournament at an average of 42.20. 

Despite being such a key cog in the English machinery, Alex Hales will not be a part of the English team touring Bangladesh in March. If the reports from Telegraph are to be believed, Hales will be making himself available for his PSL side, Islamabad United. Honouring the contract, he is going to earn around €145,000, which was his determined price after he was picked up as a platinum category player in the draft that took place in December. 

The report further states that the English management is "highly understanding of the situation and have not put pressure on Hales." It is also stated that even though Hales has not been a part of the team's ODI set-up since 2019, he is still a part of their white-ball cricket plans. The doors for him to be selected for the upcoming ODI World Cup are still open. 

He will be hard to keep out: Matthew Mott

Matthew Mott, the English white-ball coach, spoke on the situation. He believes that Hales is a proper cricketer, and there is every chance he might make it to the ODI team. 

"To me, white-ball cricket is white-ball cricket. He's (Alex Hales) shown he's not a slogger of the ball."

"He's a proper cricketer, and there's absolutely no reason why he couldn't get in the 50-over team. We've got some tough selections coming up, and we don't play a lot of one-day cricket, but I'm sure if he keeps in this rich vein of form, he'll be hard to keep out,"- said Mott.

Notably, Alex Hales has been doing a good job in the T20I format in the leagues. Hales scored 245 runs from nine matches with an average of 30.62 and a strike rate of 141.61 as long as he was a part of the BBL. He carried his form into the ILT20 and has already scored 434 runs from seven matches at an average of 86.80 and a strike rate of 157.81. Seeing his record in the private leagues, it looks like he is enjoying his cricket in this format and, as per reports, wants to operate more in the same capacity. 

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