England’s tour Sri Lanka has barely begun, yet Alastair Cook and coach Peter Moores have already found themselves on the defensive after the controversial decision to leave Alex Hales out of the opening warm-up game in Colombo. With Hales, ranked third in the ICC’s Twenty20 batting table, left out of the top three in favour of Cook, Moeen Ali and Ian Bell for Friday’s 50-over match against Sri Lanka A, England once more stood accused of the kind of conservative thinking that many fear could condemn them to another World Cup flop in Australia and New Zealand next year. And while Cook insisted England were ‘nowhere near’ identifying his opening partner, there is a concern among the coaching staff that Hales was exposed by India’s bowlers during his four one-day internationals at the end of the summer.
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Alastair Cook and Moeen Ali will open for England against Sri Lanka A
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England accused of conservatism for not picking big hitter Alex Hales
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'We wanted a bowler in the top six and Moeen gave us that,' explains Cook
Those games brought him only 92 runs and a modest strike-rate of 68, and Moores explained: ‘@placeholder started to bring the ball back into Alex and bowl spin at him, so he has to decide what else he is going to come back at them with.’