“A few people have noticed that since he came along I’ve found some proper form,” Alex Hales says. The he to whom Hales refers is not a coach or a team-mate but a dog.
He bought Kevin, his doberman puppy, in July when granted a rare summer holiday and his batting has since been relentless – his 478 T20 Blast runs have come at more than two per ball and he has a championship double century. “We’ve been hanging out a lot and are getting on very well. I’ll give him some credit,” he says, laughing heartily.
There is probably a bit more to Hales’s sensational summer than Kevin’s arrival – do not forget his match-winning, record-smashing 187 in the Royal London Cup, the largest and most outrageous innings seen in a domestic final in this country. But as he approaches his third T20 Finals Day with Nottinghamshire on Saturday (they fell at the first hurdle in the other two, an unwelcome record Hales sounds desperate to fix), he is in the cheeriest of moods. “I know my game better than ever,” he says, “and I’m feeling very confident.”
It is worth casting the mind back to finals day last year. Because of his commitments as England’s Test opener, Haleshad played only one group game, and scored two. Nevertheless he was brought back by Nottinghamshire but fell for a two-ball duck as Northamptonshire swept to the final, then the title. He seemed that day like a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders – a look that does not suit Hales, a noted rascal who loves making others laugh.
“I probably should have sat out that day,” he says. “I wasn’t in a great spot. I hadn’t played any T20 cricket and the guys who had got us there, like Greg Smith, were playing well. I find it tough flitting between formats, so the T20 block this year has really helped me. I can focus purely on T20 skills, range-hitting and getting my angles right. I feel that’s paid off and pushed me to the next level. I’m in a much better place now.”
The numbers back that up. His Blast strike rate of 206 is the highest of anyone who has faced more than two balls, and no batsman has come within 10 of his 77 fours (to go with 18 sixes). He made a 47-ball 101 to chase 223 with five balls to spare against Yorkshire and a 30-ball 95 against Durham. Trent Bridge is the highest-scoring ground in the Blast, and Hales and his incredibly consistent opening partner Riki Wessels (who has 492 runs) are a major reason why. Hampshire, Nottinghamshire’s semi-final opponents, cannot say they have not been warned about the long-limbed colossus at the top of the order.
“We’re all arriving pretty confident,” says Hales, before pointing out that it has not all been plain sailing. “We lost our first two games, and then we lost Michael Lumb and Greg Smith to retirement, and Luke Fletcher to his injury. Losing them made us realise what key guys they were in the squad. Guys have stepped up, and if we managed to lift another trophy it would be an unbelievable effort given what’s happened, and it would be theirs too.”
His Blast achievements are in keeping with his staggering white-ball CV. He has England’s only T20 century and three of top five scores in the format, as well as their highest ODI score. In that format he averages 50 and strikes at 100 since the start of 2016.
What, though, of the red ball? After being dropped from the Test side last year, Hales moved to No5. He has disappointments from his eventful first spell as a Test cricketer but his only regret – not his umpire’s room outburst at The Oval, not the three scores between 84 and 93 in consecutive Tests against Sri Lanka, not missing the Bangladesh tour – is not moving down the order sooner.
“I just wasn’t enjoying opening,” he says. “I’d never been particularly fond of it. When I was 20 or 21, trying to break into the Notts team it was the only position available because we had such a strong middle order. Once I was dropped from the Test team, it was an opportunity to take ownership and ask to bat where I wanted, and where I felt would suit me more naturally. If I could have my time again I’d go back to my 19-year-old self and say stay in the middle order! I’m enjoying the change a lot and so glad I made it.”
The sense is that time off in the past year – first, when missing Bangladesh, then after breaking a finger in India – has caused a penny to drop: his resolve has tightened and game stepped up another level still. His run-a-ball 218 against Derbyshire in the championship and all these white-ball runs have prompted talk of a Test recall. He has winter plans – he was Stellenbosch Monarchs’ first draft pick for the inaugural Global T20 League in South Africa – but the obvious showman and concealed romantic (he is more of a cricket badger than he lets on) within would love nothing more than an Ashes tour.
“Whether the ball is red, white or pink,” he says, “I’ve got to keep knocking on the door and either I get called up to play an Ashes series, which would be a dream come true, or I go and play T20 cricket around the world, which is just great fun. That’s a win-win situation, isn’t it?”
