Cleared Hales must wait his turn
opener. That doesn’t make a career, but if we think they have the ability to do it, we’ve got to give them the opportunity.
‘There are enough frailties in the Australian team, our guys have seen that and they can exploit it. Lyon has been outstanding and they’ve had a couple of guys score hundreds, but a lot of the other batsmen have been in the same category as us and our guys now have a better idea of where to bowl to them.’
he made it sound so easy. it isn’t. Even winning the Ashes on the 2010-11 tour, England went down by 267 runs at the WAcA.
if England do know Australia’s failings, how to turn the ball, how to bowl very fast and how to convert 30 into 100, there is no better time to let the rest of us in on the secret.
ALEX HALES must fight to get back into England’s one-day team despite he and Ben Stokes being included in the squad for next month’s five-match series against Australia. Hales is now deemed by police to be a witness only to a late-night brawl in Bristol on September 25. Stokes will only take part if he is cleared of any charges by the Crown Prosecution Service. And England coach Trevor Bayliss believes Hales should start on the sidelines after Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy forged a successful opening partnership in the final two games of the home series against West Indies in September, while Hales was suspended. ‘The two openers we had did very well and it would be difficult to go against them,’ said Bayliss. ‘We can bring Hales back in and drop one of those guys down, but then it would be someone else upset.’ Stokes made his second appearance for Canterbury in New Zealand’s 50-over Ford Trophy yesterday, scoring 34 from 41 balls before falling leg-before as he attempted a slog-sweep. He later sent down seven wicketless overs for 39 as Auckland won at a canter.
ENGLAND ONE-DAY SQUAD: Morgan (capt), Bairstow, Roy, Hales, Root, Buttler (wkt), Billings, Stokes, Moeen, Woakes, Willey, Rashid, Tom Curran, Plunkett, Ball, Wood.