Is Alex Hales the best option for England?

I like Alex Hales, but I don’t know if he has the patience to play in the opening position, how will he do in the test squad. Can’t believe they left Morgan out. Kind of disappointed to tell you the truth.

If not Hales, then who? England's options are really limited. They have gone through six openers (Compton, Root, Robson, Carberry, Lyth and Trott) over the last three years. None of them were able to make the position their own. Lyth was a monster in county cricket last year (1619 runs at an average of 70.39) but really struggled making the move up to Test cricket with both his technique and penchant for playing too many loose shots. Admittedly, he should have made his debut against the West Indies instead of being thrown in at the deep end to face New Zealand and Australia this summer. However, in saying that, if you are going to be a Test opener, you have to be able to do it against the very best.

The other alternatives to Hales or Lyth were Moeen Ali (never opened the batting in First-Class cricket and has struggled in facing the short-ball) Mark Stoneman (a career First-Class average of just 31), Alex Lees (too young and failed to replicate his breakout season from last year) or going back to Compton, Robson or Carberry (players that were previously discarded as not being good enough).

Hales is an extremely aggressive opener, much in the same mould as David Warner. Aggressive openers can be successful. Over the last 10 years Sehwag, Warner, Dilshan, Gayle, Dhawan and McCullum have all opened the batting and posted a higher strike rate than Hales' career First-Class strike rate of 60.41.

My biggest concern with Hales is not his aggression, its the fact that he plays across the line right from the first ball. Due to this, there is a very strong chance he will be a boom or bust opener (either out very early in his innings or make a rapid fire century).

As to Eoin Morgan, I curious as to why you "can't believe" they left him out of the Test team? He has a career Test average of 30.43 in 16 matches and last played Test cricket in 2012. His career First-Class average is a very pedestrian 34.97 in 93 matches. On top of all this, he was so bad in county cricket for Middlesex this year (an average of just 10.17 in 6 innings) that he requested to take a complete break from all cricket.

Morgan is a wonderful one-day cricketer, arguably England's best - he is inventive, unorthodox and one of my favourite batsman to watch - in saying that, his technique does not lend itself to the longer formats of the game.

I go with pedigree : Nick Compton should have been persisted with 

I do think that Compton was rather harshly treated. In his 9 Tests, he scored 2 centuries and a fifty. His debut against India in India was solid and then he really performed well against New Zealand in New Zealand, scoring 2 centuries. Yes, he struggled in his two matches at home to New Zealand which lead to him being dropped from the team, but he didn't look out of his depth at the Test level. There were some rumours the reason he was dropped had more to do with his personality than actual performance.

Since being dropped, he has gone away and scored runs at will for Middlesex, including putting up another good county season this year. Compton would have been my second choice after Hales.

The opening position needs someone to have a virtue that I believe Hales does not possess, and that is PATIENCE. I really thought that after his horrific run in England’s recent ODI series vs Australia he was done. I really like Morgan, but you may be right about him. But as ketchim says, Compton was the man for this, he always comes up with runs when it matters.

It would seem harsh to dismiss Hales from Test contention based on his performance the recent ODI series. They are two different formats of the game. Hales' runs at county cricket this year (an average of 52.47 in 11 matches) are far more indicative of his Test potential than 5 ODI matches.

Warner, Sehwag, McCullum, Gayle, Dilshan and Dhawan have all proven that you can be aggressive as opener and still be successful. One thing that needs to taken into consideration is the recent change in Test cricket; runs are now scored at a much quicker rate than ever before and given that Cook is a defensive minded opener, Hales provides the attack-minded foil he needs. Compton is a defensive minded opener in the same mould as Cook. And to Hales' credit, he has outperformed Compton in county cricket over the last two seasons.

Shane Warne was very adamant this summer that England need to be more aggressive at the top of the order to give the opening bowlers something to think about and put the pressure back on them. He is right.

Of the 28 opening partnerships to have played at least 5 Test matches together over the last three-years, England's best run rate is 2.83 between Cook and Lyth - 19th best overall. England's openers have 5 of the lowest 8 run rates over this period. Compton and Cook averaged 2.69 between them. For comparison, Gambhir and Sehwag averaged 4.32 and Rogers and Warner 3.91.

Hales has been named Alastair Cook's opening partner for the upcoming series against South Africa. Unfortunately, he failed in both of his innings in the current warm-up match against an invitational XI. It looks as though Nick Compton has the edge over Gary Ballance to bat third in the lineup.

Nick at 3 ?

hhhhmmmmmm....so the Moeen experiment is scrapped .

All signs points to Moeen batting at 8 as he did over the summer. My best guess on the XI for the first Test is: Cook (c), Hales, Compton, Root, Taylor, Stokes, Bairstow (wk), Moeen, Woakes, Broad, Anderson

I think Woakes gets the nod over Footit as the third seamer. Steven Finn has joined up with the Test squad though will not feature in the first Test. Depending on his fitness, he might be an option for the second Test.

I had totally supported Halo given, as it then appeared, Compton was out of the picture.


I still do support Halo to open but that optoion seems strange given the possibility of Compton at 3!


That playing 11 seems quite likely, although I am not sold on this Woakes chappy, but I think Mo is batting far too low in the order, but I suppose his role as spinner dictates that position.


Of course Halo is my man so I want him to succeed as indeed I want the team to, but I would have had Compton opening. It is possible the rationale is Halo provides a genuine attacking option to Cooky's more attritional approach.

The sole change I would have made to that 11 is Jordan in for Woakes.


I genuine feel we have agreat chance to beat the Saffers this time around.


Come on England!!!!!