England’s Alex Hales is one of the consistent T20 openers playing in global cricket right now. Although his England career has been up and down, he has been prolific across various franchise leagues. Hales belonged to the modern ilk of T20 openers who were ahead of their time. He made his debut in 2011 for England, but had more of the modern dynamic approach in batting of seeing the ball and trying to clear the boundary at the first opportunity presented.
On Saturday, Hales joined the elite list of players in the T20 format as he went past 14,000 runs after West Indies players Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard. The 36-year-old went past the landmark playing in the Caribbean Premier League, representing the Trinidad Knight Riders, when the batter scored 74 runs from 43 deliveries.
Hailing from South Buckinghamshire, Hales moved to Nottingham at a young age. The batter averages 90 at a strike rate of 139 at this venue in all the international games. A player with immense talent, he was part of the revolutionary Eoin Morgan team as an opener.
But his is a fascinating tale of how his career unfolded from the scare of possibly never playing for England, to again becoming a key player in the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia which England won.
Hales, albeit with a lot of potential, also brought a lot of off-field baggage with him. Before the 2019 50-Over World Cup, Hales was told he was dropped from the squad.
The lanky opener had failed a second recreational drug test. “It was extremely painful. As a cricketer it’s your worst nightmare to be involved in a World Cup squad, miss out on the eve of it and then watch your team win it. Obviously, it was brilliant to see the team lifting the cup but at the same time it eats at you from inside that you should have been part of it and you weren’t.” Hales said speaking to the Guardian.
This wasn’t the first controversy in which the right-hander was involved. In 2017 he along with England’s current red-ball skipper Ben Stokes were tried by Bristol crown court for a fight outside a Bristol nightclub. Stokes and Hales were involved in a fight with Ryan Ali and Ryan Hale outside the Mbargo nightclub in Bristol on 25th September 2017. Both players were not charged with any criminal charges but their reputations took a beating.
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Hales received a six-match ban and a £17,500 fine. However, four of the games were suspended hence Hales only served a two games ban and paid a £10,000 fine.
“It just shows, something can escalate from nowhere. It was also be an eye-opener to how much we are in the public eye as England cricketers. You have to mature and put yourself in the right situations, not be out at 2.30 am in the middle of a series. It’s a lesson learnt the incredibly hard way,” said Hales quoted in the the Guardian.
