Hales backed to replace Robson as opener
England's version of David Warner?
Having impressively dispatched India, England's attention, at least when it comes to Test cricket, has already turned to Australia's Ashes tour in July and August next year.
Alastair Cook's side won't play red-ball cricket again until a tour of the West Indies next April, ahead of a home series against New Zealand and five Tests against the Aussies.
And there are increasing hopes that a 25-year-old Twenty20 specialist with a first-class average of 37 can be England's answer to David Warner when Ashes hostilities resume in 2015.
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Nottinghamshire's Alex Hales, who is yet to represent England in ODI cricket let alone at Test level, has been anointed as the man to fill the gap that British pundits suggest will be left by Australian-born opener Sam Robson.
Robson was one of the few England batsmen to struggle against India, passing 50 just once and averaging only 23.57 from five Tests.
Despite posting an impressive century against Sri Lanka earlier this year in just his second Test, calls are growing louder for the 25-year-old to join Nick Compton and Michael Carberry on the openers' scrap heap in England's continued quest to replace Andrew Strauss at the top of the order.
"Sam Robson ... I am sorry, his footwork and judgment outside off stump is not good enough," former England skipper Geoffrey Boycott wrote in The Telegraph this week.
"We have to find someone better for the sterner tests to come against Australia in England, Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates and South Africa away."
And the man most fancied to take Robson's place is Hales.
The right-hander, who has played in the Big Bash League for Melbourne Renegades and Adelaide Strikers and has signed with Hobart Hurricanes for BBL|04, is in the form of his life having posted three centuries this month to earn a call-up to England's ODI squad to face India.
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And while the world's third-ranked Twenty20 batsman has previously been pigeon-holed as a short-form specialist, former England skipper Michael Vaughan has led the call for selectors to take a chance on the attacking opener.
"My preferred choice would be to bring Alex Hales in at the top of the order in 50-over cricket with a view to seeing if he can become our David Warner in the Test team," Vaughan wrote in The Telegraph.
"He plays good strong cricket shots and his technique is no worse than Robson, Carberry or Compton.
"I look at how deep England bat, and believe they can cope with a shot player like Hales who could contrast the styles of Cook and Gary Ballance and adopt that aggressive approach in the second innings like Warner."
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The comparison to Warner – Vaughan also referenced Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden, Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes when pushing Hales' case – underlines a remarkable turnaround for the 27-year-old Aussie.
Twelve months ago, Warner was the subject of English taunts after a pub altercation with Joe Root and a disappointing Ashes series with the bat in the UK.
But after a golden six-month period that yielded five centuries and 1066 runs in just eight Tests, the left-hander is now being used as the blueprint for England to regain the urn.
And it's easy to see why Hales sees a lot of himself in Warner.
Warner, like Hales, first came to prominence in Twenty20 cricket and faced his fair share of criticism when he first applied his aggressive style of play to Test cricket.
But Hales knows that he could do much worse than follow Warner's example if he too wants to make an impact at the highest level.
"Warner's somebody I look up to and admire as a cricketer," Hales told Cricket365 this week.
"To come from not even playing first-class cricket in to an international T20 and then next thing you know he's killing it at the top of the order in Test match cricket for Australia.
"I feel the way that my game has progressed over the last 12 months if I keep making those improvements who knows what's round the corner?"
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While Warner's success at Test level will boost Hales's case, picking the right-hander will be a big leap for England to make, particularly given their traditionally conservative approach when it comes to selection.
Former skipper Nasser Hussain noted in The Daily Mail that picking Hales would be "a gamble", while veteran radio commentator Jonathan Agnew also has his doubts.
"I think the selectors will be reluctant to pick him, but it may be that by playing in the one-day side and succeeding that he can force his way into the Test team," Agnew wrote on the BBC website.
"If he has a great World Cup and is full of confidence and is shouting out to be picked then it is possible."
But Vaughan, whose innovative captaincy and leadership inspired England to their drought-breaking Ashes win in 2005, wants selectors to be brave.
"You have to accept that now and again Hales will play a silly shot and get caught in the deep," Vaughan wrote.
"But against better teams you have to force the issue and the Australian team touring here next year will be a very different challenge to the one we played last summer.
"England need a more proactive approach. James Whitaker, the chairman of selectors, said that he likes to think one step ahead. Well, let us be one step ahead in the way we play our cricket.
"In this country we look at a player's perceived weaknesses rather than concentrating on his strengths. It is said Hales cannot play the moving ball but we have not had an opening batsman since Andrew Strauss who has been able to do that."