England batter Alex Hales, on Wednesday, September 21, picked his semi-finalists for the T20 World Cup 2022. The right-hander picked Rohit Sharma’s India, Babar Azam’s Pakistan, Aaron Finch’s Australia and Jos Buttler’s England as the top four teams of the World Cup to be played in Australia later this year.
Australia are the defending champions, while England crashed out in the semi-final after losing to eventual runners-up New Zealand. Pakistan bowed out after losing to Australia in the semis at Dubai. India, on the other hand, failed to go beyond the Super 12 after initially losing to Pakistan and the Kiwis.
“Keep making them take singles instead of boundaries. That’s the best way in T20Is, try and shut them down,” Hales said.
Hales, in the meantime, selected Babar as his ideal T20I opening partner among Pakistan batters.
“He is among the top T20 batters, he just seems to score runs whenever he likes. It would be a nice feeling to open with him,” Hales mentioned. Babar and Hales, earlier, played together for Karachi Kings in the Pakistan Super League (PSL).
Hales also reckoned that Phil Salt and Asif Ali would be the standout batters in the ongoing seven-match T20I series in Lahore and Karachi. Hales and Asif played for Islamabad United in the 2022 edition of the PSL.
Hales scored 53 runs off 40 balls in the opening T20I against Pakistan on Tuesday. On the back of his knock, England beat Pakistan by six wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the series.
