Making or Breaking of Alex Hales

99 runs in quick time, instrumental in a very good run chase, biggest score by an English batsman in Int T20s by a lobg way. It should be the making of alex Hales but when you saw the devastation on his face when he was out I just wonder. I hope he will not dwell on it too much, but it is possible he will never get over it.

Thoughts?

I think it might make him - he will now know he can make runs at this level.

However, the century thing may well be a monkey on his back for a while. I expect he will be very nervous should he get in to the 90's again for England. Overcoming those is his main challenge, but I don't think it will have too much of an adverse effect on him.

Although he was obviously distraught, getting out for 99 in a T20 will have less effect on him than had it been in a longer format. He played the perfect innings for the situation, and won England the game. In doing that he did what was required of him and more, and probably booked his place for the SA series and World T20. I'm not going to say it will 'make him' - if he does badly in Sri Lanka he could still quickly be consigned to the scrap heap - but it certainly won't 'break him'.

Given the lack of a thread for yesterday's match I'll add my thoughts here.

With the ball I think England planned really well. This worked brilliantly in the early overs, though I would perhaps have liked Patel to get through 1 or 2 in the powerplay. At the end we were slightly guilty of inflexibility, and Dernbach didn't get it quite right. But in International T20 on that pitch I still thought the West Indies score was par at best.

WI really lacked a cutting edge to their bowling, again demonstrating how keenly they miss Roach. But England did well in recognising that they didn't need to hit every ball out of the park. Bopara's innings was well timed - ensuring that wickets remained in hand first and then putting the final nail in the coffin at the end.

It's the first time I've seen Hales and I was very impressed with him. He looks a proper cricketer who played proper cricket shots and not just slogs. Too early to say what this innings will mean for him other than give him a confidence boost and solidify him in the team for a while to come.

Another impressive innings from Bopara as well. Hopefully this will be him grabbing his chance, as surely it will be his last.

As for Craig Kiesswetter, I just don't know about him. Them wild swings at the ball make me wonder if he's just a slogger. I'm sure I'm doing him a disservice there but I can't help thinking that every time I watch him bat for England.

liverbnz wrote:As for Craig Kiesswetter, I just don't know about him. Them wild swings at the ball make me wonder if he's just a slogger. I'm sure I'm doing him a disservice there but I can't help thinking that every time I watch him bat for England.

I often have similar thoughts about him. However, I suppose I can't look past the fact that he was Man of the Match in the World T20 final, and has played quite a few other good knocks amongst the average ones. He did nothing wrong with the bat in the ODI series.

He is perhaps more of a finisher than an opener. I like him as an opener in say the Windies or Australia, where you can hit through the line of the ball comfortably, but not so much in England. His optimum position depends very much on the type of pitch, for me.

I only really see Kieswetter as an opener in the subcontinent and even that didnt go too well in India last winter. Have him as the finisher and Bell opening.

shankythebiggestengfan wrote:I only really see Kieswetter as an opener in the subcontinent and even that didnt go too well in India last winter. Have him as the finisher and Bell opening.

Lets keep Cook, Bell and Trott doing a great job in Tests and ODIs. No need for them to play in a format that they aren't ideally suited to and rarely get to play domestically.

Kieswetter/Hales is probably the best option at the top in T20s, in an area where we aren't really blessed with hundreds of options. Bopara, Morgan, Bairstow, Buttler is a good 3, 4, 5, 6 for us and of course Bairstow could keep were Kieswetter not to play. But the alternatives to Kieswetter aren't great - Davies? Trego? Chris Nash? Luke Wright?

Nash could actually be a wildcard call for a place in the World T20 squad. He is a good opener, if not particularly dynamic, but crucially can bowl a few overs of more than useful spin. Could be handy given that, if we get turning decks, we don't have any part-time spinners now that KP's gone.

I'd pick Bell in T20. Bell and Hales to open.

Michael Lumb? Still only 32, and he has won a T20 world cup with England let's remember. As well as he has found some good form in all formats of the game since moving to Notts after a fairly torrid couple of years for Hampshire since he won in the WC. Could be an outside bet to open with Hales, with Bairstow or Buttler getting the gloves.

JDizzle wrote:Michael Lumb? Still only 32, and he has won a T20 world cup with England let's remember. As well as he has found some good form in all formats of the game since moving to Notts after a fairly torrid couple of years for Hampshire since he won in the WC. Could be an outside bet to open with Hales, with Bairstow or Buttler getting the gloves.

He needs big T20 runs but, as you say, shouldn't be ruled out. He did a good job in the Caribbean, even if a glance at the stats suggest that Kieswetter and particularly Pietersen made more telling contributions.

Could there be any weight to the argument that Lumb batting with Kieswetter got the best out of Kieswetter? As Hales is a similar player to Craig in that they are both right handed and are normally very off sided players, it makes them easier to bowl to. Whilst Lumb is a leftie and more of a leg side and square muscler, so the bowlers struggled to adjust their lines for Kies? In that case Lumb and Hales could work well together. And I don't think we need to know who opens yet, after all had out openers even played a T20 for England never mind batted together for England before the last WC?

JDizzle wrote:Could there be any weight to the argument that Lumb batting with Kieswetter got the best out of Kieswetter? As Hales is a similar player to Craig in that they are both right handed and are normally very off sided players, it makes them easier to bowl to. Whilst Lumb is a leftie and more of a leg side and square muscler, so the bowlers struggled to adjust their lines for Kies? In that case Lumb and Hales could work well together. And I don't think we need to know who opens yet, after all had out openers even played a T20 for England never mind batted together for England before the last WC?

I think the situation before the last World T20 was not ideal, even if it worked. They were left in a position where Trott and Denly had been very poor in Dubai, and where they had been outperformed by the Lions opening pair of Kieswetter and Lumb. The change simply had to happen.

But ideally you want to know what people are capable of going into a tournament. Otherwise you can be left having to make another change after a few games.

True, but with the format of T20, for me it very much favours going with someone in form rather than someone who has perhaps a bit more class but is in worse form. If Lumb is in good knick by the time it comes around, and Kieswetter isn't, I would go with Lumb purely because you can't afford batsmen to be wasting balls in T20. Not ideal not to have them batted together before, but far easier to get away with it in T20 and because of the format (only two group games) you can't afford to have any games to warm into the tournament.