Close to a year after he last played for his country, a rejuvenated Glenn Maxwell is back and looking to solidify his spot in Australia’s middle order
Refreshed Maxwell returns after 10-month absence
A refreshed Glenn Maxwell says he's ready to commit to a finishing role in Australia's T20 middle-order as he prepares to make his return to the national side after a 10-month absence.
Maxwell last batted for Australia in a T20 against Sri Lanka last October, blasting 62 from 28 balls, before stepping away from the game for a mental health break.
Subsequent elbow surgery and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic mean he’s been absent from the national team since, although he did captain the Melbourne Stars to a second KFC BBL final.
Now, though, he is back and as eager as anyone to resume his international career.
Being locked down in Melbourne as the city grappled with a second wave of the global health pandemic that has thrown so much into disarray has had a silver lining for Maxwell.
Victoria's only two Australia white-ball players, Maxwell and Aaron Finch, the national limited-overs captain, were restricted to training together in recent weeks.
It allowed for the pair to have some lengthy conversations about the game, how Australia's plan to play it, and Maxwell's role in that.
"(I've been) really working with Aaron Finch and the coaching staff with my role in the side and committing to that 100 per cent every time," Maxwell said from Australia's training base in Derby.
"It's going to be more of a finishing role this time.
"And to have the confidence from Finch and the coaching staff that I can perform in that role is great.
"I've been away from the game for a while now and to come back and have that backing is awesome. I just hope I can do it as well as I can."
The enigma of Maxwell is one that has long confounded fans as well as Australia's brains trust. Devastatingly powerful with the bat and outrageously inventive, he has an array of shots that make the entire ground a scoring zone.
But that inventiveness has also come at a cost; it had earned him the moniker 'The Big Show', a tag he openly detests, while losing his wicket to unorthodox stroke play, particularly the reverse sweep, has attracted plenty of criticism.
That audacious stroke-play can often mask an underlying strategy, a theory Maxwell expounded on during an imperious run of form in last summer's BBL.
"It's almost the spider theory – they're more scared of you than you are of them," Maxwell said in January.
"As a middle-order player you make a lot of mistakes and you generally cop the brunt of criticism for not getting the team over the line or playing a silly shot at the wrong time.
"I've just gotten better at choosing my moment, choosing my areas a little bit better and just staying a bit more calm. It doesn't matter if the (required) run rate goes up above 11 (per over), I have the confidence that I'll catch up."
Maxwell will get his chance over the next few weeks to show if that BBL form and clarity of thought in constructing an innings has remained with him.
Australia will play a series of intra-squad warm-up games before three T20s against England in Southampton. Three ODIs against the World Cup holders will follow.
Maxwell last played an ODI in last year's World Cup semi-final defeat to England, and was dropped for January's ODI tour of India after a "disappointing 12 months in the one-day game by his standards" in the words of national selector Trevor Hohns.
His role in this longer format, however, appears less certain.
"I certainly haven't played a lot of one-day cricket recently. I'm just looking forward to getting back out there in the colours and performing as well as I can in whatever role I'm given," Maxwell said.
"I'm confident in the skills work that I've done in the off-season and I'm ready to go."
That skills work has included extra emphasis on his bowling as he seeks to return to the levels of 2015, when he was Australia's sole spinner throughout much of a successful World Cup campaign on home soil.
With the next ODI and T20 World Cups to be both played in India, Maxwell's ability to be a dependable spin option will be crucial to the team.
It was a journey with a difference for Australia's cricketers as they arrived in the UK ahead of their series against England #ENGvAUS pic.twitter.com/QkkxlJ4ga4— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) August 25, 2020
"I've done a lot of work on my bowling in that time away, trying to be that genuine allrounder where I can bowl upwards of six, seven, eight overs a game to really take the load off the quicks and the front-line spinner if we do play one," the 31-year-old veteran of 110 ODIs said.
"To go back to that 2015 year when I was the sole spinner and I was relied heavily upon, to be able to get back that string to my bow where I'm bowling a lot of consistent overs and helping the team out wherever I can."
Maxwell bowled 100 overs in the 2014-15 season that included the World Cup win, by far the most of any season, taking 19 wickets at 29, with an economy of 5.5.
With leg-spinner Adam Zampa Australia's limited-overs slow bowler of choice, and Ashton Agar's off-spin also highly rated, Maxwell joins Marnus Labuschagne as handy back-up options in a squad that also includes Nathan Lyon.
Indeed, as head coach Justin Langer pointed out, it was Maxwell's bowling that earned him the nod over D'Arcy Short for this tour after the Western Australian had replaced him in South Africa earlier this year.
"He's taken D’Arcy’s spot, mainly because we feel more confident getting overs out of Glenn Maxwell than we do out of Shorty in the middle overs," Langer said earlier this month.
The Australians will train in Derby today before making the three-hour bus trip to Southampton on Thursday ahead of their first intra-squad match, a 50-over game, on Friday.
2020 Tour of England
Australia's T20 and ODI squad: Aaron Finch (c), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Daniel Sams, Kane Richardson, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa
England squad: TBC
August 23: Fly from Perth to UK
Australia will play three T20 and one 50-over intra-squad practice games
September 4: 1st T20, Southampton, 3am AEST Sept 5
September 6: 2nd T20, Southampton, 11pm AEST
September 8: 3rd T20, Southampton, 3am AEST Sept 9
September 11: 1st ODI, Old Trafford, 10pm AEST
September 13: 2nd ODI, Old Trafford, 10pm AEST
September 16: 3rd ODI, Old Trafford, 10pm AEST