England’s white ball specialist batter Alex Hales has announced sudden retirement from international cricket at the age of 34. Hales had a successful career, making 156 appearances for England across all three formats and scoring 5,066 runs. He was a key member of England’s T20 World Cup-winning team in November.
Hales’ last appearance for England came in a five-wicket victory over Pakistan in the 2022 T20 World Cup final in Melbourne. That World Cup was best tournament of Hales’ career as he later on reflected.
Although he has retired from international cricket, he will continue to play for his home side Nottinghamshire and in T20 franchises around the world.
Hales expressed his gratitude for representing England, calling it an “absolute privilege.” He is currently playing for Trent Rockets in The Hundred and is expected to continue playing in T20 leagues such as Australia’s Big Bash League, Indian Premier League and Pakistan Super League.
Hales was known as a short-form specialist and played a crucial role in England’s one-day international side. An incredibly talented clean hitter of the ball, Hales played many memorable innings for England throughout his career.
He scored 2,419 runs in 70 ODIs and also had brief stints in Test cricket, scoring 573 runs in 11 matches between 2015 and 2016. His best ODI innings came against Australia at him home ground Trent Bridge, he scored 147 off 92 balls as his team crushed Australia by 242 runs after putting up 481 runs on board.
However, Hales’ international career was not without controversy. In the year 2017, he was involved in an incident outside a nightclub with teammate Ben Stokes, which led to him being charged by the England and Wales Cricket Board and suspended. In 2019, he served a ban for reportedly failing a recreational drugs test, resulting in him being dropped from England’s World Cup squad.
Hales’ three-year exile from international cricket ended in September 2022 when he was called up as a replacement for the injured Jonny Bairstow. However, he has now decided to retire from international cricket altogether.
Hales’ retirement is expected to create opportunities for other players like Phil Salt and Will Smeed to open the batting for England. Salt has played 16 T20s and 14 ODIs and was part of the World Cup-winning team last year, while Smeed has been praised by former captain Eoin Morgan. England’s next series is a T20 series against New Zealand starting on August 30, followed by the defense of their World Cup title in West Indies and the USA next June.
