Alex Hales’ dreams have finally come true after years of prayers since he has been named in England’s T20I World Cup squad as injured Johnny Bairstow’s replacement. While Jason Roy was expected to replace the wicketkeeping batter, his suffering form has kept him out, making a place for Hales, who last represented England in a T20I match in 2019.
Bairstow was injured while playing golf, and the severe injury has killed his hopes to play in the upcoming T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia. Hales, who has been calling the ECB lately to forget the past, and let him don the England jersey once again, finally has succeeded, getting another chance to play with dignity. Notably, he was expelled from the national fold following testing positive for recreational drug use.
The batter was named in England’s squad for the World Cup 2019 but was banned for 21 days a month before the all-important event. Although the smokey batter appeared in multiple T20 contests across the world and was impressed with his batting power show, he had to wait for the national call after embarrassing himself with the drug usage.
Although the batter was engaged in disappointing with an unwanted act, but the board feels Alex Hales can modify himself as he strives to shine once again in national colours. Rob Key narrated,
“I spoke to Alex Hales, he rang me actually, and he argued why he wasn’t there, and I think that’s quite right too. I much prefer when these people pick up the phone and say, ‘come on then, why wasn’t I there?’ I have a huge amount of respect for that as opposed to people who go behind the scenes moaning about why they’ve not been picked,”
England’s squad for ICC T20 World Cup 2022
Jos Buttler (c), Moeen Ali, Alex Hales, Harry Brook, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, David Willey, Chris Woakes, and Mark Wood.
