Alex Hales delighted to be back in form
Apr 6, 2019 at 2:16 PM
After an indifferent test series against Pakistan, the pressure was mounting on underperforming opener Alex Hales to convert his starts into big scores. The right-handed opener had a fascinating time against Sri Lanka at home, where he made merry in the tests and followed it up with a string of impressive scores in ODI’s. However, Hales was simply terrible against Pakistan in the four tests and had poor returns after the first couple of ODI’s.
Despite being under the scanner, Hales put all his doubters to rest as he made history in the third ODI. Hales, with his epic knock of 171, became the highest individual scorer for England in ODI’s as records tumbled at Nottingham. Thanks to his heroics, England registered the highest ever ODI score, at 444. Post the game, Hales admitted that he was glad to be finally back in form.
“It’s been a tough few weeks personally. The Test series didn’t go to plan but when it comes to the white ball in the last 12 months I’ve felt in good form,” Hales said. “I was always confident heading into this series and it’s nice to put it right tonight. The summer has had plenty of ups and downs.”I did well against Sri Lanka but didn’t do myself justice against Pakistan. It’s nice to try and sweep that under the rug and try to move forwards.”
The opener maintained that there were certain differences while batting in tests and the shorter formats. “They’re two very different games, red-ball, and white-ball cricket. All I can do is try to score as many runs as I can in the remaining games and keep myself in contention for that spot. Hopefully, they back me. It was a tough series but when it came to 50-over cricket it took me 20 games to cement my spot.”