Notorious England opener announces shock retirement

Just a week after the shock retirement of pacer Stuart Broad, another English cricketer has announced he is walking away from the game.

Alex Hales, a key player from England's T20 World Cup winning squad from 2022 has called time on his international career.

Hales, who had a career spanning more than a decade, made the annoucement on social media.

"I've made some memories and some friendships to last a lifetime and I feel that now is the right time to move on," Hales wrote on Instagram.

The 34-year-old signs off as a T20 World Cup winner after returning to the international fold to be a part of England's winning squad last year in Australia.

"Throughout my time in an England shirt I've experienced some of the highest highs as well as some of the lowest lows," Hales said in his statement.

"It's been an incredible journey and I feel very content that my last game for England was winning a World Cup final."

Hales had pulled out of the T20Is against Bangladesh earlier this year. He also hasn't been in England's plans in the fifty-overs format since 2019. However, with less than a year to go to the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024, the decision comes as a bit of a surprise.

The England opener made 156 appearances for the national team, amassing over 5000 international runs.

The right-hand batsman, who played 11 Test matches, 70 one-day internationals and 75 Twenty20s for England, was dropped from England's 2019 ODI World Cup squad after news of a failed recreational drugs test broke a month before the tournament and spent nearly three years in exile.

He was called back for the 2022 T20 World Cup as a replacement to replace the injured Jonny Bairstow, a tournament England went on to win.

Hales was also fined and suspended for his involvement in a nightclub altercation with team mate Ben Stokes in 2017.

Also, in November last year, Hales was reprimanded by Cricket Discipline Commission over a historic social media post from 2009 showing him in blackface at a New Year's Eve party.

Hales, who plays for Nottinghamshire County, said he will continue to play franchise cricket, Reuters reported.