Newly-appointed England head coach Chris Silverwood has recently spoken about the possibility of Alex Hales’ return, saying the batsman still has a lot of opportunities to make comeback to the national fold.

Hales has been out of England side for almost half a year since playing his last competitive match against West Indies in March after failing to pass a drug test.

Nottinghamshire’s swashbuckling opening batsman was dropped from the World Cup squad following his suspension for failing a recreational drug test and has subsequently lost his central contract as well.

Later, he accused the England cricket board of breaking a promise of sticking by him, as Hales reportedly claimed that Ashley Giles had reneged on assurances that he would be free to play the World Cup 2019 after completing his punishment and required rehabilitation program.  

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However, Hales’ return could not happen in the successful World Cup campaign and since then he has been out of national contention, but now it seems that England’s new coach in Chris Silverwood has cleared the path for Hales possible return to Lions' set-up.

Recently in a candid Q/A with Sky Sports, Silverwood made it clear that he was not a big fan of “Never-say-Never” and no one should write anyone off which has given massive positive hopes to Hales.

Silverwood said: “I’m a big fan for never saying never. I think that Alex has probably still got a little bit of room to makeup but time is a great healer and never write anybody off.”

Noteworthy, Hales, since then, has been playing in the T20 tournaments around the world, as the right-hander recently finished as the leading run-scorer for Nottinghamshire in the T20 Blast with 418 runs at a strike-rate of 140.26, while was part of the Caribbean Premier League 2019 winning side Barbados Tridents.

(With Sky Sports Inputs)