England
\nEngland opener Alex Hales is enjoying his comeback. After spending three years in wilderness\u2014after positive drug test in 2019 that led Eoin Morgan to banishing him from England\u2019s white-ball setup\u2014he was picked for the seven-match series against Pakistan and hammered a 51-ball 84 against Australia in Perth.
\nIt was his superior record in BBL\u2014\u2013 where he has scored 1,857 runs in 60 matches in six seasons at a strike rate of 151.34\u2014that prompted the selectors to consider him after regular opener Jonny Bairstow was injured last month. And he reposed their faith by smacking 51-ball eighty four against Australia in Perth.
\nHe said he felt extremely nervous before the game, as he had never imagined that he would feature in another World Cup. \u201cIt\u2019s a chance I thought would never come round again. I want to play with a smile, hopefully get some good scores, and push as hard as I can to win a World Cup. It\u2019s something I didn\u2019t see happening a few months ago, especially with the firepower at the top of the order, and to get this chance, I\u2019m just really keen to make the most of it,\u201d he said after the match.
\nHe admitted that he felt nervous before the game. \u201cIt was a weird one,\u201d said Hales, who has a splendid record of1858 runs from 67T20 internationals at an average of 30 and a strike rate of 139.
\n\u201cI hadn\u2019t got nervous for a long time. I don\u2019t know what it was. I put it down to jet lag or maybe the fact that it\u2019s heading into a huge six weeks for me and a chance I probably thought I wouldn\u2019t get again a few months ago, so there were definitely pre-game nerves.\u201d
\nBut a chat with captain eased his nerves. \u201cJos told me on Saturday that it\u2019s a place I\u2019ve got a lot of experience, and that counts for a lot in T20s,\u201dhe said.
\nHale was not in the initial squad, but he called up Rob Key, the managing director of men\u2019s cricket, and demand an explanation. Then the Bairstow injury happened.\u201cI think they announced the squad in the evening. I knew in the morning that I wasn\u2019t in it so I sent him a message saying, \u2018Do you fancy a chat?\u201d Hales said.
\n\u201cI went quite hard. I put my point across quite bluntly because I had nothing to lose. I felt I had a really strong case with my record in Australia so I thought \u2018why not?\u2019. You\u2019ll have to ask Rob or Jos if it was a big part of me getting the call-up, but I\u2019m glad I did it for sure,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
England England opener Alex Hales is enjoying his comeback. After spending three years in wilderness\u2014after positive drug test in 2019 that led Eoin Morgan to banishing him from England\u2019s white-ball setup\u2014he was picked for the seven-match series against Pakistan and hammered a 51-ball 84 against Australia in Perth. It was his superior record in BBL\u2014\u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-288755","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n