Run-scoring record in sight for Hales

Star English import Alex Hales enters the Sydney Thunder's match on Friday against the Melbourne Stars poised to become the BBL's leading international run scorer, currently trailing countryman Luke Wright by six runs.

The opening batter has 1474 runs to his name from 48 KFC BBL matches, set to overtake Wright, a former Star himself, in nine fewer games. What's all the more impressive is that Hales has accumulated over two thirds of his runs in his stellar BBL campaigns of the past two seasons.

Despite a duck in his opening match of BBL|11 on Monday night against the Brisbane Heat, Hales said he was primed for another successful season, and thrilled about the prospect of taking over from Wright as the BBL's most successful international batter.

"To have the chance to be the leading overseas run scorer of all time would be huge for me," Hales said.

"It's a tournament that holds some great memories for me personally."

A former teammate of Wright, Hales was full of praise for the T20 stalwart and said he was honoured to be taking the record over from such an accomplished white-ball player.

"I spent a lot of time with Luke both with England, with certain franchises, and this year in the hundred," Hales said.

"He's been an excellent player for a very long time and an even better bloke, so (I've got) really good memories with Luke."

Having been on the outer of the England set-up following off-field indiscretions in early 2019, Hales – who played with the Melbourne Renegades for three seasons from BBL|02 – has made a name for himself playing T20 cricket all over the world, and said he had a lot of great memories from his time spent in Australia.

"I've been coming here (Australia) since I was 18 or 19, playing for various club sides in league cricket, and got a chance in the Big Bash many moons ago now," he said.

"Any opportunity I get to play in Australia means a hell of a lot and I'd snap anyone's hand off to come play here."

Looking to improve upon their loss in the Knockout final at the hands of the Heat last summer, Hales said there was excitement within the Thunder camp and that they took great confidence from their opening victory.

"The depth of this squad is really exciting," he said.

"The middle order firepower we've got, numbers four to eight, the batters just keep coming and coming with guys who can score at a 200-plus strike rate.

"Knowing you've got that depth and that amount of power to come, it really frees you up at the top order to go out and express yourself."

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