Alex Hales has served his time: says Rob Key

Rob Key, the managing director of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), believes experienced hitter Alex Hales can return to the national team. ‘He has done his time’
he said. Since his name was dropped from the Three Lions squad for the 2019 World Cup in England, the 33-year-old Hales has not played for the Three Lions. Eoin Morgan, England’s ODI and T20I skipper, lost trust in the veteran when he failed a recreational drug test.

In the last summer, Ed Smith, a former national selector, raised the prospect of enabling Hales to practice with the British national team. However, he resigned and lost his position before his theory could have been proven. Hales, who is also a former England batter, has already been subjected to enough abuse in the past three years, according to Key.

“I’ll have to communicate with the individuals who made that choice, but Alex Hales would be open for selection. I believe he has served his sentence. Is this, however, a guarantee that he will make the team? That is a separate discussion” This is what Key was reported as saying.

Hales has played in a variety of T20 competitions throughout the world since being dropped out of the England team. The right-handed batsman has competed in the Big Bash League (BBL), Caribbean Premier League (CPL), and Pakistan Super League (PSL).

However, owing to ‘bubble fatigue,’ the 33-year-old withdrew from the Indian Premier League. Following that, KKR had to replace Hales with Aaron Finch, the Australian limited-overs skipper. Alex Hales has 573, 2419, and 1644 runs in 11 Tests, 70 One-Day Internationals, and 60 Twenty-20 Internationals, respectively, with 7 centuries and 27 half-centuries.

In April 2019, Alex Hales was suspended for 21 days after testing positive for recreational drug usage. To “create the ideal environment” surrounding the senior national team, he was dropped from the preliminary roster for the 2019 World Cup as well as the T20I and ODI teams for the series against Ireland and Pakistan.

The drug misuse is said to have been discovered when Hales completed a standard hair-follicle test, which is administered to all professional men’s cricketers and centrally contracted women’s cricketers at the start and end of each season. Following the death of Surrey’s Tom Maynard in 2013, the policy was implemented in 2013, and it may identify illegal chemicals in the system for up to three months.