Is this Cheating?
Like most Cheating scenarios, it depends: investigate, and if you believe that Alex knew that was wrong, and did it to gain advantage, then UC-Cheating does apply.
In your example, it might be quite difficult for Alex to convince us he didn't know there was anything wrong with what he just did.
However, it is conceivable that he thought the appropriate “fix” was just to grab the one he would have drawn - and was confused about the ordering. In this case, it may be that Alex wasn't trying to gain an advantage.
One key point to keep in mind: if Alex is just trying to fix it himself, and avoid any penalty from a Judge, that is seeking advantage. (The advantage is not getting a Game Loss, or even not getting a Warning.)
d:^D