England's Director of Cricket Ashley Giles has on Thursday (March 11) given a big hope to batsman Alex Hales of England team comeback, saying the door can’t stay closed on the opener forever.
He hinted that Hales may be offered a recall to England's white-ball set-up after almost two years while revealing they had “positive” talks with the opener’s agent James Cross on Thursday following Eoin Morgan’s remark of latter’s chances to make the squad for this year’s T20 World Cup in India.
While England’s white-ball captain Morgan had denied any chances of Hales making the cut to the national squad for the forthcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2021 in India, Giles planning to invite the right-hander to England training when the white-ball team play at home this summer.
The 32-year-old was axed from England’s 2019 World Cup squad for failing two tests for recreational drugs. He last played for England in March 2019 prior to their victorious World Cup campaign at home.
The Nottinghamshire batsman, who has played 11 Tests, 70 ODIs, and 60 T20I for England, was also stripped of his central contract at the end of the 2019 season after losing his 2019 World Cup berth.
However, Hales has now forced the national selectors to think to give him a second chance with his brilliant performances with the bat in the T20 leagues across the world and Giles said they are thinking to set his return in the English summer while describing him as “a high-class player”.
Giles told Sky Sports’ Cricket Show, “We all know what a good player Alex is. There has to be a way back in. In these times bringing someone back in — trying to reintegrate them — has been difficult to do because we’re living bubble life. But I certainly hope there are opportunities to do that this year.”
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He further added, “He’s a high-class player. We’re lucky that we’re blessed with a lot of high-class players in our T20 lineup particularly. But the door can’t be closed forever. As we all know, trust is a really important thing when you play in teams and that has to be won back.”
Giles signed off by saying, “We’re always looking at ways to consider getting players who aren’t currently in the active squad to come along to training days, perhaps in the run-up to a series. It’s an opportunity to keep growing and expanding that group of players and keep building those relationships with players who are just outside the actual squad, but that we know are good cricketers. It’s something we might consider in the English summer.”
(With ANI Inputs)
