Australian all-rounder, Glenn Maxwell is one of those cricketers who can single handily take the game away from his opponent. Since his debut, he has been a finisher for Australian cricket but the last couple of years he has not performed up to the expectations. Recently, Glenn Maxwell scored 62 runs in the first ODI against England which came in a losing cause. England thrashed Australia by 3 wickets to go one-up in the 5-Match ODI series.
It has been a rough time for Glenn Maxwell despite his stellar performance in 2015, where his batting average was more than 45. There has been a total turnaround in his batting form. Due to his disappointing form, he was even dropped from the squad for the last series against England with a harsh warning from Steve Smith to improvise his style of batting.
In IPL 2018, he had a poor performance for Delhi Daredevils with scoring just 169 runs at an average of 14.08. When he spoke about his IPL 2018 stint, he added, "I was disappointed in my output but I wasn't disappointed with how I was hitting the ball," he said. "I wasn't too concerned with my form. I was training well, preparing well, doing all the right things. Sometimes you just don't get the opportunities when the time is right for your form. The time has come for Glenn Maxwell to show his experience and be a game builder for Australia in the ODI series against England.
When talking about his performance against England in the first ODI, he said "The disappointing thing [was] there was a really good opportunity there, I could have controlled the back end of the innings. Unfortunately, when you are in good nick you can time one a little bit too well and sometimes it can go against you like that."
Captain Tim Paine promoted Glenn Maxwell up in the batting order, which gave Maxwell all the time to settle in and build his momentum but Liam Plunkett's good length delivery got the better of him. Australia only managed to put 214 runs on the board which was an easy task for the home side in the first ODI.
"If you look back over the past three or four years there's been a lot of times when I've come out and we've been three or four down for less than 60 or 70 runs," Maxwell said.
"Myself and George Bailey used to put on big partnerships for us. I used to love that role. Previously it was more of a counter-attack and being able to put the pressure back on the opposition and take the pressure off my partner. (At The Oval) we lost Marcus Stoinis and it was down to myself and Ashton Agar to bat time and at least have some sort of ammunition come the last couple of overs.
"But I got out just at a time where (Adil) Rashid was about to come back on and bowl a couple more overs and that could have been the time to go. The timing wasn't great but the planning was a lot different from what I batted previously."
When asked about his preparations against England, he added "As soon as I came back into the Australian side I had two really good practice games, was 50 not out in both of those against our attack, and I felt really good coming over here. I just kept backing that preparation and kept training really well. That consistency of training is hopefully going to lead to more consistent performances through that middle order for us."
In the absence of Australian star players, Steve Smith and David Warner, a more disciplined approach from Glenn Maxwell could be needed, "We just have to control those overs straight after the Power Play a little bit better," he said. "When we are playing well we are able to put a little bit of pressure on - not play reckless cricket - but put them under a little bit of pressure to bring the quicks back on, or just a change of bowling."
(Inputs from Cricbuzz)
