Alex Hales IPL 2023: Why will Hales not play IPL 2023 for KKR?

It is safe to say that Kolkata Knight Riders were the most active team during the recently closed trading window before the mini-auction for the 16th season of the Indian Premier League.

Knight Riders, who had finished at the seventh position (first time since 2013) on the points table, have already had to name a new head coach in former India batter Chandrakant Pandit following former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum’s ouster. With them buying a total of three cricketers during the trade window, a proactive approach is pretty evident to be seen at KKR.

Kolkata, who released a total of 16 cricketers (including six overseas) before the next season, currently have 14 players (including three traded players) with them. With the lowest purse available among all teams, Kolkata will have to be really judicious during the auction to be held in Kochi next month.

Alex Hales IPL 2023

England opening batter Alex Hales was one of the six overseas players released by Knight Riders yesterday. Coming on the back of reviving his international career via a fruitful ICC T20 World Cup campaign, all eyes were on Hales ahead of IPL 2023.

However, the 33-year old player joined the likes of Pat Cummins and Sam Billings to withdraw from the next season of the biggest T20 league in the world due to personal reasons. Unlike his English teammate in Billings, Hales didn’t announce anything across his social media handles. That being said, it was the franchise which made an announcement on Hales’ behalf.

It is worth mentioning that Hales was bought by KKR for his base price of INR 2 crore in the last auction. With him opting out of IPL 2022 due to bio-bubble fatigue, Australia T20I captain Aaron Finch was named as his replacement.

With the former not available for IPL 2023 either, Kolkata have released both of them especially after acquiring the services of Afghanistan wicket-keeper batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz from defending champions Gujarat Titans.

For the unversed, IPL 2018 was the only season when Hales had played in the IPL. Representing Sunrisers Hyderabad, Hales had scored 148 runs in six innings at a strike rate of 125.42.