T20 World Cup 2022 | Alex Hales replaces ‘injured’ Jonny Bairstow in England’s squad

Alex Hales has finally made his return to international cricket as he replaces the injured Jonny Bairstow in England's squad for the next T20 World Cup in Australia. Bairstow was ruled out of the squad after sustaining a left leg injury while playing golf last week. 

Hales, who last played for England in March 2019, was dropped from the international set-up for failing an ECB recreational drug test for the second time. The 33-year-old has been batting explosively at the top for a while now in different franchise T20 leagues and is now set to come back in white-ball cricket. He has also been added to England's T20 squad for September's tour of Pakistan.

England announced their squad for the T20 World Cup, which gets underway on October 16 and runs until 13 November. The seven-match series in Pakistan, meanwhile, will start on September 20.

Hales, who has scored 1,644 runs in 60 T20 internationals, said, "the last three years have probably been the best I've played in T20 cricket", as quoted by BBC.

England squad for the Men's T20 World Cup: Jos Buttler (C), Moeen Ali, Harry Brook, Sam Curran, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood. Traveling Reserves: Liam Dawson, Richard Gleeson, Tymal Mills.

England squad for T20 series in Pakistan: Jos Buttler (C), Moeen Ali, Harry Brook, Jordan Cox, Sam Curran, Ben Duckett, Liam Dawson, Richard Gleeson, Alex Hales, Tom Helm, Will Jacks, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Olly Stone, Reece Topley, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Luke Wood, Mark Wood.