Uncapped Hales gets ODI nod

Cricket365
August 19, 2014

England have rewarded Alex Hales for a superb recent run of form by selecting him for the forthcoming one-day international series against India.

England have rewarded Alex Hales for a superb recent run of form with Nottinghamshire by selecting him for the forthcoming one-day international series against India.

The 25-year-old has 32 Twenty20 internationals under his belt at an average of 37.85, but this will be his first time representing his country in the 50-over game.

Hales has been in superb form of late, scoring a century for England Lions against Sri Lanka A earlier this month, 141 in Nottinghamshire's victory over Middlesex in the One-Day Cup and another unbeaten ton 102 in the County Championship.

Steven Finn is another new face in the 15-man squad, his first call-up in any format for his country since last September, when he returned home early from the Ashes tour without playing a game.

Seamer Stuart Broad, meanwhile, misses out as he faces surgery on a troublesome knee. He will seek a specialist surgical opinion on the injury later this week.

Aside from Broad, opener Sam Robson is the only player from the final Test XI not involved in the squad.

There is also no place for Ravi Bopara, who has been a regular in the limited overs squad.

Bowler Tim Bresnan and opener Michael Carberry are also omitted, despite having been in the ODI squad against Sri Lanka in May and June.

National selector James Whitaker said: "With the ICC Cricket World Cup now less than six months away our focus over the coming months switches to identifying our strongest possible squad for that competition.

"However this is an important series in its own right and we have selected 15 players who we believe will perform well against an Indian side with a strong one-day record."

England play India in a five-match ODI series which starts at Bristol on August 25.

They are coming off a 3-1 hammering of the visitors in the recent five-match Test series, which culminated in an innings-and-244-run drubbing at The Oval last week.

<b>Full England squad:</b> Alastair Cook (Essex, capt), Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), James Anderson (Lancashire), Gary Ballance (Yorkshire), Ian Bell (Warwickshire), Jos Buttler (Lancashire, wk), Steven Finn (Middlesex), Harry Gurney (Nottinghamshire), Alex Hales (Nottinghamshire), Chris Jordan (Sussex), Eoin Morgan (Middlesex), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Ben Stokes (Durham), James Tredwell (Kent), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire).