Eoin Morgan softens stance on Alex Hales, says 'conversation' will take place at some stage

England white-ball skipper Eoin Morgan has said that the door of England cricket team hasn’t been permanently closed for Alex Hales, who has been out of favour for more than two years after ‘breakdown of trust’ between him and the team management including the skipper Morgn himself.

Addressing the pre-match conference before the home series against Sri Lanka, Morgan said that Hales has proved his quality by scoring an ample amount of runs around the world. However, he pointed out that England white-ball squads are spoilt for choices as there are numbers of players for each slot which makes the case tougher for Hales to come back in the side.

"I think he does,” Morgan said in a reply to question if Hales stands a chance to come back into the England side. “I think when you look at the player that he is and the performances that he puts in around the world, he's a very fine player. But when you look at the players that we have available to us at the moment were spoiled, and I think the longer you spend out of the side the further away you get from the position you once had.”

"I think looking at our top order at the moment in particular, even behind our top 3 or 4 we have guys sitting behind there that have drastically improved their performance in the international shirt that are taking up a position."

Morgan suggested that way forward for Hales and the team management would be a trilateral meeting between him, Hales and the coach Chris Silverwood but lamented the Covid-19 related challenges behind the delay. However, he said that the ‘conversation’ will take place at some stage.

"I think there are conversations to be had between Alex, myself and the coach, and potentially a few of the players, but trying to get those happening in Covid times has been an issue. But they could happen at some stage," he said.

He did not duck the questions around the tough call on the omission of Joe Root from the T20 squad and said that the Test skipper has shown enough keenness to make a comeback. However, like in the case of Hales, Morgan said that players such as Dawid Malan has taken their opportunity to shine at the big stage in absence of Root.

"There's no definitive answer on anybody at the moment. Obviously, Joe is keen to get back involved when he can. We know the demands on his schedule which have probably led to him not having as many opportunities. But equally, with him missing games other guys have come in and done well - Dawid (Malan) I think is a good example of that - but there's no way we're ruling Joe out,” Morgan added.

Morgan led the England ODI side to a triumphant campaign in the ICC ODI World Cup 2019 two years back and he is eyeing another feather in his cap with two T20 world cups scheduled at the end of this year and the next year.