With England’s search for a reliable Test opener to provide the perfect foil to captain Alastair Cook seemingly forever ongoing, Sport360’s reporters look at whether Alex Hales is the man to finally fill the void left by Andrew Strauss.
Assistant news editor Ajit Vijaykumar is in the camp backing Hales to succeed while Sport360.com online journalist Barnaby Read doesn’t see the Nottinghamshire man as the right fit.
Use #360debate across social media to have your say on Hales’ case as a Test opener.
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AJIT VIJAYKUMAR – YES!
Assistant News Editor
England’s search for a reliable opener in Test matches continues. Alastair Cook still hasn’t found a consistent partner ever since Andrew Strauss called it a day and England have gone through a whole bunch of names without settling on one.
They’ve tried Michael Carberry, Nick Compton, Adam Lyth, Sam Robson and even Moeen Ali. But none of them came even close to being a long-term solution.
Their next assignment is against South Africa and the four Test series in the rainbow nation will be as stern a test as any. England cannot take half measures anymore and it’s time for them to make a bold move.
Alex Hales provides them an opportunity to dream big and challenge a strong South African pace attack. With Alastair Cook fairly stable at the other end, England should look at Hales as an attacking option at the top of the order who can unsettle the South African quicks as he is fearless and not bogged down by expectations. Not many would blame him if he fails.
A maiden ODI century today for @AlexHales1, and it’s a weight off the batsman’s shoulders #bbccricket pic.twitter.com/uboQQxcXPk
— Test Match Special (@bbctms) November 13, 2015
Hales is on a high at the moment, having completed his maiden ODI century against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi. Momentum is a precious commodity in sport and Hales should have enough confidence to take on South Africa. England have gone down the conservative road, hoping that playing the waiting game will bear fruits.
But Test cricket is not played in that fashion anymore.
Matches routinely finish in three and four days. Result-oriented wickets are being prepared on a regular basis and bowlers of all variety are reaping its benefits. In such a situation, the onus is on the batsmen to make the most of the chances on offer and score runs as quickly as possible and put the opposition on the back foot.
Slow, long innings don’t set up games they way they used to. Every team needs an enforcer who can take the game by the scruff of the neck and charge up the players. In Hales, England have a player who has the ability to do just that.
And anyhow, Hales can’t possibly perform any worse than the other Test openers England have tried out so far.
BARNABY READ – NO!
Online Journalist
This argument will likely be filled with contradictions, which is quite fitting of Alex Hales’ international career to date.
When he first pulled on an England shirt against India in 2011, his bludgeoning reputation on the county circuit promised a lot. He was expected to lead the new, exciting brand of English cricket across the shorter formats.
Fleeting signs of promise followed but a first hundred took three more years to come to fruition (it must be said he is the only Englishman to score a century in T20 cricket).
A first ODI ton was long overdue last week and timely considering Moeen Ali’s run of poor form in the UAE and Hales’ lurking presence in the dressing room.
However, just two fifties sit alongside that hundred in 50-over cricket for Hales who has an average of just 25.09 in his 22 ODIs to date. For a man who is deemed more comfortable in the one-day game, this should not be enough to make him the number one contender to open against South Africa.
First ODI century for Alex Hales which I imagine confirms him as Test opener in South Africa – even though England keen on separate teams
— Paul Newman (@Paul_NewmanDM) November 13, 2015
Admittedly, he is on the back of a good county season in which he ended up as the leading English opener in Division One in terms of average (49.55). Hales also scored three centuries and two half-centuries in 11 matches, not an awful return but not exactly setting the world alight.
While it was one of Hales’ best four-day returns, there are question marks over the value of county runs in making the step up to Test cricket.
Just look at Adam Lyth. He was consistently more prolific for Yorkshire than Hales at Nottinghamshire over the past three years but he was found out against Australia this summer. And with Hales, his technique just doesn’t look solid enough to transfer to Tests. Add to that his inconsistency in his favoured shorter formats and he doesn’t seem to have the makeup to be a Test match opener.
However, with Moeen’s worrying form and the likelihood that they will ditch Adil Rashid in favour of one spinner in South Africa, Hales is likely to be given the nod.
In that case, for the sake of English cricket, here’s hoping he’s given a run in the team to prove this argument wrong and not discarded like Messrs Lyth, Compton, Robson and Carberry.
