Were England right to effectively end Kevin Pietersen’s international career? Have they handed the Ashes to Australia? These questions remain but at 35 and with injuries continuing to affect the latter stages of his career, it seems obvious now that KP will never pull on an England shirt again.
Key Points
As supporters, we must all look to the future and one man who can help us to forget about the spat between Pietersen and the ECB is Nottinghamshire’s Alex Hales. A regular in the national T20 set up for some time, Hales is gradually forcing his way into the One Day squad and test recognition should surely follow.
A man for all formats
Those who have only seen Alex Hales perform in the T20 arena, either for England or for Notts Outlaws in the Nat West Blast, could be forgiven for seeing him as a very one dimensional cricketer. This is a top order biffer, sent out to score as quickly as possible with a view to taking the game away from the opposition very quickly and he’s done it very successfully.
After making 99 against West Indies in 2012, Hales went on to become the first English cricketer to make an international T20 hundred with a brilliant 116 against Sri Lanka. Earlier in May, six consecutive sixes in a domestic game against the Bears earned the 26 year old a lucrative short term IPL contract with Mumbai Indians.
More to offer
Hales can certainly accelerate but there is much more to his game and a quick look at his first class stats at the opening of the 2015 season show a more patient element. Before he departed for India, the right hander had scored 532 runs at an average of 66.50. Most notably, his strike rate stands at a fraction over 64 and he has only hit one six in eight innings.
Those figures show two things: Firstly, Alex Hales isn’t the reckless hitter that many perceive and secondly, he is fast enough to fill a need that has been hampering the test side for nearly a decade.
Pedestrian pairings
Since Marcus Trescothick retired from the international game, England have lacked a player to give them any real impetus at the top of the order. In the period since the Somerset left hander departed, Alastair Cook has been a mainstay but his partners have included Andrew Strauss, Nick Compton, Sam Robson and Jonathan Trott; all fairly pedestrian openers who have failed to leave their mark.
Cook will start the test series against New Zealand with Yorkshire’s Adam Lyth at the other end of the 22 yards but if the selectors want a more positive approach to the new ball, Hales is a perfect foil.
New ball questions
Another popular misconception is that Hales is exclusively an opener but at Nottinghamshire, he plays his County Championship cricket from number 3. So, if there are any concerns about his ability to handle the new ball, there is some flexibility.
In his last one day international against Afghanistan, the Notts man did open and should have been caught first ball so if there are doubts, England have further options. In fact, why not play Hales in the Pietersen role?
KP’s most effective innings came in matches where his side were already on top. With the openers laying a platform, Pietersen would come in at number four against tired bowlers and the old ball and in a short space of time, he had bullied England into a winning position.
As we’ve seen, Alexs Hales is by no means a one dimensional cricketer. If England need a more positive opener, an adaptable number three or even, dare we say it, a new Kevin Pietersen, the foundations to each position are already there in the Nottinghamshire batsman.
