The England team management sees Alex Hales as a man who can win them matches down under next year with his devastating stuff at the top of the order and it’s fair enough for them to think that way as the Nottinghamshire batsman has been doing that in the domestic circuit for the last 4-5 years, making match winning contributions batting upfront. But, international cricket is not like domestic cricket. It’s a level higher. You don’t face as good an attack in domestic cricket as you’ve got to face at the international level.

Players, however, get selected on the basis of their domestic performances only and the same has happened to Hales also, but, expecting him to win you the World Cup straightaway is putting severe pressure on the youngster. And, having seen him play in the last series against India, one can say that he is not a finished product just yet as far as the 50-over cricket is concerned.

There are no question marks over Hales’ hitting abilities. He gets the deliveries away when power play is on and only two or three men are back at the boundary line, but, when it comes to the middle part where the spinners come on and the fielders get pushed back, Hales feel like being in jail. It’s just about dot or big shot for him. If the spinners bowl tight and do not let him get away for a few overs, he goes for the glory shots and perishes. The Indian spinners did it to him a couple of times.

So, that’s an area where Hales needs to look in. Even if it’s a 50-over game, a top order batsman needs to play a big inning. Only then, he can get his team into the best possible position. Peter Moores and the other England coaches will have to make Hales realize that.

The devastating opening batsman, Chris Gayle, has been called back into the West Indies T20 squad for the only match against Bangladesh which will be played this Wednesday.

Gayle had been rested for the previous T20 series that the Caribbean side had played against New Zealand after which it was being said that the selection committee had perhaps decided to move on from him and start grooming a young opener for the next World Championship in 2016, but, now, that the big Jamaican is back, it’s clear that he is in the plans of the team management.

Some time back, Gayle was the most dangerous T20 batsman on the planet. He used to almost intimidate the bowlers with his batting, but, over the last couple of years, the bowlers have worked him out. Several of his weaknesses have been exposed and he has no longer remained the same sort of force in the shortest format. He was absolutely miserable in the last Indian Premier League scoring at a strike rate of below 100 in quite a few matches.

Gayle’s main issue is against the off spinners. As he likes to stand and deliver, he gets outfoxed by the arm balls quite easily. The captains use off-spin straightaway against him and he falls most of the times.

Gayle has been out on short balls too of late which is interesting because he was an efficient puller of the cricket ball at his prime. Perhaps, the slowing of the reflexes is the reason behind him becoming vulnerable against the short pitched stuff.

If Gayle has to prolong his career as an international player, he has to pay attention to these things and fix them.

The 6’4” left hander currently averages 37 in the One Day Internationals, while, 32 in the T20 internationals.

Ian Chappell, the former Aussie batsman, thinks that Michael Clarke is tactically better than any other captain going around at the moment.

Chappell made this statement while speaking in a Cricket programme a couple of days back.

It’s now something new to hear from Chappell. He has always been a big admirer of Clarke’s leadership and on many occasions in the past as well, he has praised Clarke.

In that programme when Chappell was asked about his opinion on the current test captains, he said, “There are quite a few mediocre skippers going around these days. You talk about Cook, MS or even Graeme Smith, who retired recently; they are not tactically that good. There is no comparison between them and the Aussie skipper Michael Clarke.”

“Yes, Angelo Mathews is someone whom I can’t say anything about because I’ve hardly watched him. But, as far as the others are concerned, I have watched them a lot and I can say with full conviction that they are not great captains.”

“However, as much as I want Michael to keep leading the Australian side, I know that he is not going to be there for long. He has taken care of his back pretty well so far, but, still, it’s hard to imagine him going for long.”

When asked if he thinks Alastair Cook should be leading the England test team in the next Ashes series which will take place in 2015, Chappell said, “Well, if that happens, the people who would be the most happy are the Aussie players. They would be absolutely delighted.”

Chappell himself captained the Australian team in test match cricket for a few years and he was known to be tactically very sound. He was a very aggressive captain who used to get into the skin of the opposition players.