England’s Alex Hales retires from International cricket with immediate effect

England opening batter Alex Hales on Friday announced his retirement from international cricket with immediate effect

London: Explosive and temperamental England opening batter Alex Hales on Friday announced his retirement from international cricket with immediate effect.

Hales, who made his international debut against India in August 2011 in a T20I at Manchester, represented England in 11 Tests, 70 One-Day Internationals and 75 T20Is.

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Incidentally, Hales’ last impact innings on the international stage was also against India, a brutal, unbeaten 47-ball 86 (4x4s, 7x6s) in the semifinal of the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia. Hales and Jos Buttler (80 not out) had powered England to a 10-wicket win while chasing 169 at Adelaide.

“Just a note to announce that I have decided to retire from international cricket,” Hales shared in a note on his Instagram account.

“It has been an absolute privilege to have represented my country on 156 occasions across all three formats. l’ve made some memories and some friendships to last a lifetime and I feel that now is the right time to move on,” he wrote.

Hales, whose last appearance for England was in the T20 World Cup 2022 final against Pakistan at Melbourne, said, “Throughout my time in an England shirt I’ve experienced some of the highest highs as well as some of the lowest lows. It’s been an incredible journey and I feel very content that my last game for England was winning a World Cup final.”

Hales was not a part of England’s World Cup winning campaign in 2019 when the team’s captain Eoin Morgan and senior players decided that he had no role to play, while he served a 21-day ban for failing a second recreational drugs case.

Morgan had termed it as ‘a complete breakdown of trust’.

But Hales was a vital cog in England’s revival in white-ball cricket. In fact, he contributed a 92-ball 147 (16x4s, 5x6s) when England piled up a monumental 481/6 against Australia in the Nottingham ODI in 2018 — the second highest ODI total ever.

Hales scored 2,419 runs at 37.79 with six centuries and 14 fifties in 70 ODIs. In 75 T20Is, he made 2,074 runs at 30.95 with one century and 12 half-centuries. In 11 Tests, he could only manage five fifties and a total of 573 runs at 27.28.