Eoin Morgan Reckons That Door Is Still Open For Alex Hales To Return But Re-Building Of Trust Necessary

England white-ball captain Eoin Morgan has revealed that the doors of the national side are still open for discarded swashbuckling opener Alex for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup in Australia this October.

Hales has not played a game for the English cricket team since May 2019 after he was suspended by the English and Wales Cricket Board [ECB] following his failure to pass the second successive drug test.

Hales was a part of the preliminary squad for the 2019 World Cup but following the failure of drug test, he was replaced by James Vince in the England squad for the quadrennial event with captain Eoin Morgan terming Hales antics as a complete breakdown of trust between him and the team.

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Eoin Morgan stresses on Alex Hales rebuilding trust with the English squad

Commenting on the same, Eoin Morgan, the World Cup-winning England skipper, said that while the doors of the team are still open for Alex Hales, he cannot predict an exact time frame on how long it will take for the trust to get rebuild between the discarded opener and the team.

“In terms of what that looks like, practically, it’s human nature, it’s about developing trust. I don’t think you can put a time limit on gaining back that trust, and that’s not just with me, that’s with every member of the squad, the backroom staff, the selectors,” Eoin Morgan was quoted as saying by Wisden.

He added; “And that does take time. We’re in May, so it’s 11 months ago that the incident happened with Alex, so it’s actually not that long ago that it happened, and what happened was actually quite considerably harmful to the environment, which obviously led to the breakdown in trust between Alex and our players, so to say, how long that will take to regain, we don’t know, but certainly the door is still open for that trust to be built back up,”

The calls for the return of Hales to the national team have picked up in the past few months after the swashbuckling opener had a brilliant Big Bash League campaign for his Sydney Thunder franchise.

The Nottinghamshire opener racked up 576 runs in 17 games at an average of 38.40 and was the second-highest run-getter in the tournament behind Marcus Stoinis.

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