The importance of Alex Hales to England’s one-day team can feel undervalued at times, such that when the architects of their post-World Cup revival are reeled off his name tends to lag behind the weapons-grade hitting of Ben Stokes or Jos Buttler, the steely invention of Eoin Morgan or the gleaming jewel in the batting crown, Joe Root.
But as Morgan’s side opened their Champions Trophy campaign with an eight-wicket victory over Bangladesh, it owed much to the Nottinghamshire opener breaking the back of the chase. His 86-ball 95 set the platform for two of his more vaunted team-mates, an unbeaten 133 from Root and Morgan’s 75 not out polishing off the target of 306 with minimal fuss.
Root’s hundred, for all its craft and placement, was in many ways simply the latest exhibition of what is already known. From the moment he threaded Shakib Al Hasan through cover, his frictionless class shone. The fact that it was a career-best, achieved while an apparent calf strain saw him knock back a couple of painkillers midway through, set it apart from the nine preceding it.
England’s players have long been queuing up to bat with the Yorkshireman. Yet it may surprise some that after his longest-standing team–mate, Morgan, it is Hales with whom he has enjoyed the most bounteous alliance, and only by a handful of runs despite playing only half the number of matches; in 20 innings the pair now have 1,510 at an average of 75.
In their stand of 159 off 25.3 overs here, it was Hales who dominated, adopting his standard practice of playing himself in before stepping on the accelerator. There were back-foot cuts, clips through midwicket, the charging smear that brought up his half-century and two moosed straight sixes before, finally, he picked out deep midwicket trying to reach three-figures with a flourish. Hales trudged off punching the air in frustration and the knowledge that a sixth one-day hundred had gone begging. It would have been six since the last World Cup, a number Root now has to himself.
Like Hales’s general approach to batting, winning over the audience is a case of playing catch-up. He is not technically perfect and his willowy 6ft 5in frame does not always get the purists purring. At times he can flit between solid and streaky and in Test cricket – still the sole barometer for many – he did not seize his chance. The last of his 11 caps ended in a barrage of expletives towards the third umpire on this very ground last summer. But as England have grown to realise in the past two years, a separation in analysis is required.
Hales has of course benefited from a strong backing by the management at the start of the year, the kind that his opening partner, Jason Roy, received on the eve of the tournament when Morgan said his place would be secure for the duration. This is something that will be tested once more before the meeting with New Zealand in Cardiff on Tuesday, after Roy took his run of single-figure scores to five in six innings when a premeditated scoop off Mashrafe Mortaza was snaffled by the flying Mustafizur Rahman at leg slip for one.
The home comforts of south London had been tipped by some to benefit the Surrey opener but from the moment a smattering of fireworks ushered in this tournament curtain-raiser, there was a tangible twinge of general unfamiliarity at times. Be it the decision to drop Adil Rashid from the side despite him leading England’s wicket-taking charts over the last two years, the flickering of Morgan’s lips during an anthem he usually spurns, the drumming Beefeaters or the hulking great Nissan tank quite literally parked on the lawn of a ground temporarily shorn of its Kia sponsorship and then the side strain suffered by Chris Woakes, a sense of unease hung in the air during the morning.
Rashid’s demotion was in keeping with England’s tradition of 11th-hour tournament tinkering. The paralysis suffered by the visitors when they were bowled out for 84 by India’s seamers in Tuesday’s warm-up on the same ground was the reason offered by Morgan but when Tamim Iqbal was sending the strong Bangladeshi support into a frenzy with his ninth one-day hundred, Rashid’s wicket-taking ability – one that has brought 60 victims in two years – felt badly needed.
The leg-spinner’s absence also highlighted the difference in policy compared to the batsmen, with Roy hoping to emerge from his current funk with an extended run and Hales, who at the start of the year may have fretted over his spot after his decision to miss the Bangladesh tour and a broken hand, a player profiting from the approach.
