Alex Hales signs Nottinghamshire contract extension

In all, Hales has scored 3,885 T20 runs in 137 matches for Nottinghamshire since 2008, with 29 scores above fifty

Alex Hales has signed a two-year contract extension with Nottinghamshire.

The batsman, who last played for England shortly before the 2019 World Cup, has continued to cement his position as one of the leading openers in the white-ball game at domestic level, winning the T20 Blast for a second time last year, as well as finishing last season’s Big Bash with Sydney Thunder as the competition’s highest run-scorer.

In all, Hales has scored 3,885 T20 runs in 137 matches for Nottinghamshire since 2008, with 29 scores above fifty. In this season’s T20 Blast, he has struck 382 runs at an average of 47.75, including a match-winning hundred against Lancashire.

“Playing at Trent Bridge means everything to me and I’ve come to appreciate my time here so much more over the past few years,” he said.

“Focusing on white-ball cricket has helped my career immensely. I have the advantage of reporting for duty fully tuned in for the specific demands of the limited-overs game. The squad we have put together is incredible and was thoroughly deserving of the trophy last season."

Mick Newell, who handed Hales his first professional contract 13 years ago as Nottinghamshire’s director of cricket, added: “We’re seeing extraordinary levels of consistency from Alex around the world in a format in which a trait like that is very hard to find.

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“The evolution of par scores at Trent Bridge has been driven by our top-order intent. Alex has had a big part to play in that and he’s been a matchwinner for Notts on many occasions down the years, as well as becoming one of the first picks as an opening batsman in competitions across the world. 

“He is a very difficult player to bowl to because he deals so much in boundaries and can strike them to all different parts of the ground.”

Hales’ international absence continued this week, with England calling up an entirely new squad following seven positive Covid-19 tests among the party initially selected to face Pakistan in three ODIs. It was speculated in some parts that the 32-year-old might see his hiatus ended, but he went unselected once again.

He has not been picked by England since Eoin Morgan accused him of showing “complete disregard” for team values and causing a “lack of trust” by failing a recreational drugs test shortly before the start of the World Cup, which Morgan’s men ultimately won.