Alex Hales had his fair share of luck when compiling his highest Test score of 94. Even so he was pretty grumpy as he left the ground, having been dismissed lbw by the gentle pace of Angelo Mathews.
There were no smiles visible from the close-ups on the TV screens as Hales raised his bat to acknowledge applause that mingled praise with sympathy. One day the little man who scuttles on to the ground with a TV camera, which is always shoved up the nose of the disconsolate, departing batsman, will receive his comeuppance and it would be a harsh courtroom that convicts for GBH.
Hales has been around long enough to know a missed opportunity. He is no Ashton Agar, the Australian who delivered the most memorable of 90s at Trent Bridge three years ago. Agar, who was 19 at the time, left the field with a beaming smile. Afterwards he delivered an endearing “no worries”, adding there would always be another day and the old grouches snorted at such naivety. In fact Agar, after hitting 98 at No11 in his first innings, has played only one more Test since that staggering debut. These chances do not come around easily.
Hence Hales was grimacing, though not with the same anguish as Nick Compton 24 hours earlier. Unlike Compton, Hales has secured his place for the foreseeable future with his 292 runs at 58 in this series. But that elusive barrier remains.
Another six runs and he would have become the first Englishman to score hundreds in all four formats of the game, another five and he would have been the first to score four 99s.
There is now an awareness of Hales’s nervousness as he approaches three figures. He himself admits “I’ve been abused by the lads for jug avoidance”. For all the jests he would happily put his hand in his pocket to celebrate a maiden Test century, which so often serves as a watershed moment for an international cricketer. Hales has only played seven Tests and after his stuttering start in South Africa his average is now creeping into the respectable 30s.
He is heading in the right direction. There is plenty to smile about. The pursuit of that elusive hundred has not yet reached the exasperating proportions experienced by some very substantial figures in the game. Graham Gooch was playing his 22nd Test when he made his maiden century, having endured being run out for 99 along the way – when David Gower was at the other end.
Steve Waugh had to wait until his 27th Test, which was at Leeds in 1989, whereupon he promptly scored another at Lord’s in the next match. For the Australia opener, Bobby Simpson, the wait lasted 30 Tests but having reached three figures at Manchester in 1964 he duly went on to reach 311, as if making up for lost time.
Mike Gatting’s maiden hundred came in what is now Mumbai, in his 31st match, when Gower showed his confidence, inviting him to bat at No3 and to act as his sergeant-major vice‑captain on the 1984-85 tour of India. Before the end of that series Gatting had posted his maiden double century, in the Test in what is now Chennai.
So Hales need not fret too much. The list above contains some very high-quality players. The evidence also suggests that their Test careers kicked on significantly once that first century was out of the way. However, Hales will be an anguished man – and blessed by the selectors – if has to wait as long as Alistair Campbell, the former Zimbabwe captain, did to hit a Test century.
He notched his maiden hundred in his 47th Test match, which took place in Nagpur. For Hales to get that far in his Test career without reaching a century would be a remarkable achievement. There would have to be many more infuriating 90s along the way.
