Captain Eoin Morgan confirms the news of opener Alex Hales returning to England white-ball training this summer, but he remains outside the group for now. Hales tested positive for recreational drugs before the World Cup. This caused breach of trust between Morgan and himself and Hales exclusion from the team. Last month Alex Hales spoke on The Hussain and Key Cricket Show that he is still desperate to play for England in franchise T20 competitions, including this year's Big Bash League in Australia, where he averaged 39.
Now Morgan told Sky Sports Cricket pundit Mike Atherton, "Alex is in the same position he has been - he finds himself outside of the group at the moment and not selected." Morgan will lead England in the first of five T20s against India on Friday.
"Last year, we didn't have any opportunities where we could bring guys outside of the group in for a training session. This summer, just going on the regulations on how they might be, there could be opportunities for other players and Alex to be around the group certainly at some stage, so that might be the case." Morgan responded to comments of being hostile and keeping Hales away from the field, "I think that's very unfair. Where Alex is concerned we have done absolutely everything for him to put his player welfare at the forefront of our thinking right from the very beginning of us finding out that he had tested positive on the eve of the World Cup. Obviously naturally we were worried for the player and since then there has been a natural process that we've gone through. Naturally, sports teams do change, and when teams are successful they are harder to get back into, and Alex finds himself outside of the team, and at the moment we are doing extremely well so it's a very difficult team to get back into."