Alex Hales making a strong case for inclusion in England's World Cup squad

A lot depends on the opening pair of the team for success in white-ball formats. For England, Jason Roy has been opening the innings for a long time. He has been crucial in giving good starts to the English team but he has been suffering a slump in form in recent times. This has been affecting the team’s form and England won eight T20Is and lost nine from the 17 matches they played. They also played nine ODIs including five victories and three losses since October 2021. 

They lost the ODI and T20I series against India while they lost to South Africa in T20Is at home. They were all-out once in ODIs against South Africa before playing all the allotted overs while it occurred twice in T20Is while chasing. Indian bowlers troubled them more in the series before that getting all-out on multiple occasions. The template of being aggressive didn’t work and the failure of Jason Roy as an opener also played a role in it. Specifically, his form in T20Is has been dismal. Against India, he managed to score only 64 runs from three ODIs and 31 runs from three T20Is. His dismal form continued in the South Africa series where his numbers read 57 runs from three ODIs and 45 runs from three T20Is. He has scored 329 runs from 16 T20Is since October 2021 with a poor average of 21.93 and only two half-centuries. He has also suffered a horrid summer scoring only 76 runs in T20Is and 30 runs from five innings in the ongoing Hundred. 

Roy’s form is a worrying sign for England and they need to find a solid opener with an aggressive mould to replace him and get some good starts. The possible solution for the team can be to open with Alex Hales in the upcoming T20 World Cup. Hales was one of the revolutionary openers with his stroke-playing nature on his debut in 2011 and was going strong till 2019. However, his differences with team management kept him out of the squad after that. Hales missed the 2019 World Cup as he failed in a drug test. That caused mistrust between team management and him which led to his omission since 2019. The player always had capabilities suited to white-ball cricket but now he has been scoring runs consistently to be in contention for the selection in the national team. 

Hales has made a strong case for a return to the national side with his performance in the ongoing ‘The Hundred’. He is currently the second highest run-scorer with 205 runs from six games. Also, his record in BBL after being away from the national side helps for his inclusion as the World Cup will be played in Australia. Hales is also of the opinion that he should be included for the World Cup. 

"Of course they'll be looking at him," Anderson said. "He's somebody who over the last three years has played brilliantly in the T20 format. There's a new captain, a new coach and they will be looking at him,” he had remarked.