The England cricket team is scheduled to tour Bangladesh next month. Top-order batsman Alex Hales is not coming with the team on that tour. He chose the Pakistan Super League (PSL). England will arrive in Bangladesh on February 24 to play three ODIs and three T20Is. Their tour will end on March 14 with a T20 series.

According to the British media ‘The Telegraph’, the PSL team Islamabad United has bought Hales, who played a big role in England’s title win in last year’s T20 World Cup, for a hefty salary. The amount of remuneration is 1 lakh 45 thousand pounds. In addition, PSL team Islamabad United issued a statement saying that they are getting Hales for the entire tournament. Since Hales is not on a central contract, the England Cricket Board will also not force him to tour Bangladesh.

Alex Hales said in a statement, “I have come to Pakistan for the first time to play in the PSL for Islamabad United. This is my fifth season with this franchise. In the last edition, they were by my side during my tough times and respected my decision. So I didn’t mind coming back for the playoffs. This year too, I have decided to play in the PSL because I love this team and the freedom that is available here. ‘

Desert Vipers scored 195 runs for 4 wickets on Sunday (January 22). Hales added 72 runs in just 40 balls with Rohan Mustafa (23). Then Colin Munro added 67 runs. Captain Munro scored 39 runs in 23 balls.

At the end of 17 overs, Hales left the field with a score of 173, with 10 fours and 5 sixes in his innings. In the end, Sherfane Rutherford took the score to 200 runs in 15 balls.

In reply, Gulf Giants lost 3 wickets for 30 runs. After that, the scene of the match changed with the 117-run partnership of Hetmyer and Lynn. Hetmeyer stopped at 70 runs in 35 balls with 5 fours and sixes. Lynn scored 71 runs in 42 balls with 8 fours and 3 sixes.

In both these innings, the foundation of victory was formed, which was finished by David Wiese and Liam Dawson. They left the field with an unbroken partnership of 34 runs. Wiese was unbeaten on 22 and Dawson on 16. Gulf Giants scored 196 runs for 5 wickets in 19.3 overs.

Gulf Giants are at the top with 8 points from four matches. After the first defeat, Desert Vipers is in second place with 6 points.

Hales’ national team-mate Sam Billings contributed to the Desert Vipers’ seven-wicket win. He scored 49 runs off 38 balls. Earlier, both of them added 128 runs for the third wicket. Hales’ innings included 9 fours and 3 sixes, Billings hit 4 fours and 1 six.

After losing two wickets for 15 runs in the first two overs of the innings, Desert Vipers snatched the victory with the bat of both.

Billings, however, stopped at 3 runs away from the target. Sherfane Rutherford remained unbeaten on 1. Hales remained unbeaten on 83 runs and became the man of the match. Desert Vipers scored 148 runs for 3 wickets in 16.4 overs.

Sharjah Warriors lost 5 wickets for 68 runs after losing the toss. Joe Denly and Mohammad Nabi’s unbroken partnership of 77 runs gave them a respectable score. Denly remained unbeaten on 36 and Nabi on 34. They scored 145 runs for 5 wickets.

In: Rilee Rossouw, David Warner, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Sam Whiteman, Usman Qadir
Out: Sam Billings, Usman Khawaja, Jonathan Cook, Saqib Mahmood, Chris Tremain, Mohammad Hasnain

What happened in the draft
It felt like they had done well with Alex Hales, David Willey, and Rilee Rossouw. Willey was an enticing platinum pick with his availability for most of the season, but he recently withdrew from the deal sending Thunder back to the drawing board and they brought in Afghanistan left-armer Fazalhaq Farooqi. Hales will return to his long-term club on the back of T20 World Cup success and Rossouw has had an impressive season in the format. Both, however, will only be around until early January.

Last season: Knockout
Thunder reached the finals on the back of a strong mid-season run where they won six games on the bounce including a 129-run hammering of Melbourne Renegades where Daniel Sams hit an astonishing 98 off 44 balls. But they fell short against Adelaide Strikers where they had got the equation down to 39 off 23 balls then 14 off the last over which Harry Conway was able to defend. Jason Sangha led the run-scoring with 445 at 49.44 and a strike-rate of 132.04 and Sams was the leading wicket-taker with 19 although Tanveer Sangha and Gurinder Sandhu were the most consistent performers.

International impact-
The return of David Warner to the BBL was the big off-season story, but the window for his availability after the South Africa series may shrink with the squad due to depart for India in late January. Still, when he does suit up in green it will be one of the most anticipated moments of the tournament – especially the derby clash with Steven Smith’s Sydney Sixers. Beyond that, and the overseas players, Thunder are unlikely to be hit by international call-ups as they have no one else in the Test set-up with Usman Khawaja having moved to Brisbane Heat.

Key player
Daniel Sams is another player who might feel he has a part to play in the future of Australia’s T20 side after being on the fringes in recent seasons. For Thunder, he will have a big role to play with bat and ball, although the later bringing down his economy rate a touch may help his international ambitions. In terms of batting, it will be interesting to see how and where he is used. As he showed last season with that 98 he has the potential to be destructive, although that inning was an outlier in the campaign. But since then he has produced equally powerful innings in the T20 Blast (71 off 24 balls) and the Hundred (55 off 25 balls).

Young player to watch-
Tanveer Sangha’s stress fracture is a blow to their bowling attack, but Oliver Davies caused instant excitement when he struck two quickfire innings at the start of his BBL career in late 2020, but things have been tougher since then making 74 in 11 innings. The early stages of this season were hindered as he came back from a hip injury but in November in made 115 off 106 balls playing for the combined NSW/ACT XI against West Indies in Canberra.

The Pakistani bowlers were bowling well even with little capital. But 137 runs were not enough to stop England. On the other hand, Ben Stokes made a big contribution to England’s victory in another World Cup after the 2019 ODI World Cup.

On Sunday, England defeated Alex Hales, who played a devastating inning in the semi-finals by 7 runs. Hales (1) was bowled by Shaheen Afridi in the first over. In the fourth over, Phil Salt (9) was caught by Haris Rauf. England’s score was 32. Ben Stokes comes to the wicket. Pakistan’s three pacers Shaheen-Haris and Nasim were bowling well. Haris Rauf gave England a big push in the 6th over. England captain Jos Buttler was caught in the gloves of keeper Rizwan.

His innings of 26 runs in 16 balls ended. At the other end, Ben Stokes was panting. He scored just 1 run in the first 5 balls. England scored 45 runs in the powerplay after losing three wickets. His partnership with Harry Brooke was also frozen, but the runs were slow. Finally, the partnership of 39 runs in 41 balls was broken by the departure of Harry Brooke. Brooke, who scored 20 runs in 23 balls, returned as a victim of Shadab Khan. In the last 5 overs, 41 runs were needed. Shaheen Afridi left the field with an injury in the 16th over. Pakistan suffered a major setback.

Iftikhar bowled the remaining 5 balls of the over. Ben Stokes took control of the match by hitting four sixes in that over. Wasim was also beaten in the next over. England’s victory was just a matter of time. Wasim’s second ball of the 19th over was bowled by Moin Ali, who scored 19 off 12 balls. The fifth wicket partnership of 48 runs in 35 balls was broken. Sister Stokes completed his fifty by hitting a boundary in the fourth ball. The scores of the two teams are also equal. In the last ball, England reached the port of victory by 5 wickets with an over in hand in Stokes’ shot. Stokes remained unbeaten on 52 off 49 balls.

Earlier, After losing the toss, Pakistan scored 137 runs for 8 wickets in 20 overs. Babar-Rizwan’s opening pair came with 29 runs. The pair was broken in the fifth over when Sam Curran bowled Rizwan, who scored 15 runs off 14 balls. 39 runs came in the Powerplay. Then Mohammad Haris was caught by Ben Stokes by Adil Rashid. Harris, known as a hard hitter, scored 8 runs off 12 balls. Rashid’s second victim is Babar Azam. He cut and bowled the Pakistan captain who scored 32 runs off 28 balls. Iftikhar also failed. He returned with a catch behind the wicket off Ben Stokes without scoring any runs in 6 balls.