Hales gets short shrift from Melbourne Uni

Alex Hales discovered the perils of being an England international playing in Australian grade cricket when he was subjected to a sustained spell of short bowling - and seemingly a few verbals - by Melbourne University CC.

Hales has been turning out for Melbourne side Fitzroy Doncaster and has done pretty well, with innings of 42 off 27 and 66 off 40 from four T20 appearances. But footage of a less-successful outing has appeared on Melbourne University's YouTube page.

Fitzroy Doncaster batted second in the Victoria Premier match on November 27, chasing a target of 111, and Hales managed just 5 off 10 balls. He faced at least four bouncers from MUCC opening bowler Steven Reid, before slicing a drive off Mark Stafford at the other end, although Fitzroy Doncaster still went on to win the match.

Hales chose to return to Melbourne, where he has previously played for Dandenong and Croyden, to get in some practice ahead of England's limited-overs tour of India in January. Hales had not played since England's series with Pakistan in September, having opted out of their recent tour of Bangladesh due to security concerns.

"I wanted to get some cricket in and some training done outdoors before the one-day trip to India so I figured I best come out here and do something rather than be in an indoor training centre or the gym back home,'' he told the Manningham Leader. "It's a good chance to get some miles in the legs and games in before the tour in January.

Although Hales was dropped from the Test side after the Pakistan series, he said he had hopes of being involved again when England return to Australia next year for the 2017-18 Ashes.

"I've still got ambitions to get back into the team, hopefully I can have a good summer next year and try and get back in it for the Ashes here next year," Hales said. If he's successful, he can doubtless expect a few more bouncers to come his way.