Managing Director of England Men's cricket Rob Key has revealed that Alex Hales phoned him and "argued" about why he was not selected for the upcoming T20 World Cup.
England made the decision to drop Jason Roy after a stark loss of form, leaving a spot open for somebody else to partner captain Jos Buttler at the top of the order. And Hales, who has not played for England since 2019 after failing a second recreational drugs test, was hopeful of making a return.
However, England instead decided they wanted to promote Jonny Bairstow up the order, with Phil Salt in the squad as a reserve opener. Those plans have now been scuppered after Bairstow suffered a lower leg injury in a freak accident while playing golf that has ruled him out of the World Cup.
"Alex Hales was mentioned when we spoke about who the best opening partner for Jos was," Key said. "His name was mentioned a lot but we felt Jonny Bairstow was the man to do that in the World Cup.
"I've said on a number of occasions that I feel Alex Hales has served his time for his misdemeanours. Now it's on form, selection and whether we feel they are the best person to go out there.
"At the moment we feel Jonny Bairstow is that person. 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've a huge amount of respect for that as opposed to people who go behind the scenes moaning about why they've not been picked.
"It's just an unfortunate time where there's a hell of a lot of very good players. People say it's a good problem to have but it's not straightforward with who you pick as a batter in this format of white-ball cricket because there's so many good options.
"There's a lot of people who have also missed out who quite rightly could have said 'how come I'm not in?'"
