Alex Hales could be offered the chance to train with England’s Twenty20 side during the summer after a near two-year absence triggered by his recreational drugs ban on the eve of the 2019 World Cup.
The Nottinghamshire opener was removed from the World Cup squad when details of his 21-day suspension emerged and he has stayed out in the cold ever since due to what the captain, Eoin Morgan, described as a “huge breakdown in trust”.
But naming a 16-man squad for the five-match T20 series against India in March, with Hales again absent, the national selector, Ed Smith, hinted at a possible route back before the T20 World Cup in October.
Asked about Hales, Smith said: “It’s coming up for two years [out of the squad] this summer. In the summer we’ll look at inviting some people to training in the run-up to a series as we look to extend and expand our squad and the relationships within.
“We’re always looking at ways to consider getting players who aren’t currently in the squad to come along to training days, perhaps in the run-up to a series.
“We’re very aware of everything players do in franchise cricket around the world. That is something we will discuss and look at moving forward, with what’s best for England cricket.”
Asked if Morgan’s stance had softened here, Smith replied: “I don’t know. I just think it’s something we might consider, it’s the kind of thing we do from time to time and we’re open to doing that.”
Hales, who boasts seven international centuries in white-ball cricket and was a key man in England’s rebuild after the disastrous 2015 World Cup, has been in barnstorming form while playing in domestic Twenty20 tournaments around the globe.
The 32-year-old right-hander was the leading scorer in the recent Big Bash League with 543 runs at an astonishing strike-rate of 161, prompting his head coach at Sydney Thunder, Shane Bond, to state he was “being punished way too much” by the England management.
While Lancashire’s Liam Livingstone gets his England chance after impressing for the Big Bash runners-up, Perth Scorchers, Joe Root is once again missing in a rare chance for Morgan to field a full-strength side. Jos Buttler, who misses the final three Tests against India, returns for the T20 series that starts in Ahmedabad on 12 March.
On Root’s omission, Smith said: “We’re seeing that Joe is one of England’s greatest ever cricketers, that’s becoming clearer by the day and by the match. Joe’s sequence of batting in Test cricket is the best I’ve ever seen from an England batsman.
“That said, Joe has an incredibly busy year coming up. It’s also the case that England have won seven out of eight T20 series, with the eighth being a draw. That coincided in 2018 with moving towards a very aggressive batting order.
“He knows he has a lot of demands on his energy and his resources in Test cricket, where he is the leader and central to our success. He knows if he doesn’t play in that T20 World Cup – and no decision has been made because he might come back in – it shows how strong a position English cricket is in.”
England T20 squad (v India): Eoin Morgan (captain), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, Mark Wood. Reserves: Jake Ball, Matt Parkinson.
