The last time he was with the Test team in India, Glenn Maxwell opened both the batting and the bowling © BCCI
At the start of this summer, Glenn Maxwell couldn’t even find a place in Victoria’s Sheffield Shield side. When he did, he found himself frustrated at batting below wicketkeeper and captain Matthew Wade in the order. Then he found himself recalled to Australia’s ODI squad for the Chappell-Hadlee Series, but sat out of every game. Now, to cap off a rollercoaster few months, he finds himself in a Test squad to tour India.
It is a remarkable scenario, for only six weeks ago Maxwell had expressed disappointment that he had not been in the mix for the Adelaide Test against South Africa, when Australia’s selectors drastically revamped the Test side. Australia’s coach, Darren Lehmann, was blunt in his public response to Maxwell: “Are you going to pick a bloke that hasn’t made a hundred for two years?”
And yet that is precisely what Australia have now done by including Maxwell in their 16-man touring party, for he has not played another first-class match since Lehmann made those comments. And while it is true that Maxwell has not made a Sheffield Shield century since February 2014, he made a first-class hundred more recently than two years ago – for Yorkshire in August 2015.
Maxwell’s inclusion in the Test squad is based not on recent Sheffield Shield form – he has 129 runs at 25.80 and only a single wicket from three games this summer – but on knowledge of what he can do. Australia’s XI in India will almost certainly feature an allrounder and if a spinning allrounder is desired, then Maxwell is the man most likely to get the job.
“Glenn is very experienced in Indian conditions,” Trevor Hohns, the interim chairman of selectors said on Sunday. “He’s generally regarded as a good player of spin bowling. He’s a good fielder, and his offspin could be handy. If conditions prevail, we have the option of playing him as the allrounder and having the extra spinning option available to us.”
All three of Maxwell’s Test appearances so far have come in Asia, but never have Australia been entirely sure of how to use him. On debut in Hyderabad in 2013, he batted at No. 8 and was used as a second spinner. In Delhi on the same tour he batted at No. 7 in one innings and opened the next, and became the first Australian in more than 80 years to open the batting and bowling in the same Test.
Glenn Maxwell on playing club cricket in Melbourne
His third Test came against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi the following year, but again Australia seemed unsure of how to get the best out of Maxwell. He replaced Alex Doolan at No. 3 (pushed to No. 4 in one innings due to a nightwatchman situation) and made a breezy 37 in the first innings and 4 in the second, but appeared unsuited to digging in for a long stay. His 16 overs in the match did not bring a wicket.
At the time, Lehmann said Maxwell had been chosen because of his “x-factor”, and perhaps it is no coincidence that in mathematics “x” is used to represent the unknown. Maxwell’s ability is obvious – he averages nearly 40 in first-class cricket, smashed an unbeaten 145 in a T20 against Sri Lanka in September, and is Australia’s reigning ODI Cricketer of the Year – but translating that talent to Test cricket is the challenge.
“I’m really looking forward to hopefully getting an opportunity, and, if it does come, grabbing hold of it with two hands,” Maxwell said. “I had a really good opportunity in Abu Dhabi to really nail down a spot. I probably let some good opportunities slip. It was a good wicket that first innings, I got myself a start and that was where it ended. I was hoping for a long time that wouldn’t be my last Test, I’m just so happy to be back in this fold.
“I thought if I could play to the best of my ability I might get another opportunity. Unfortunately the scheduling doesn’t help a lot over the summer where you’re playing one-dayers, T20s, the Big Bash and the Shield season’s either side of that. If you’re in the one-day squad, which is a great reward, you’re probably missing a fair bit of Sheffield Shield cricket as well.
“It’s a double-edged sword where you’re not really getting as much Sheffield Shield cricket as the guys coming through and putting pressure on you. You have to find ways to play as much red-ball cricket as you can. I’ve been trying to do that by getting over to England, playing second XI cricket, club cricket – whatever I need to do to make sure I’m playing good red-ball cricket.”
Maxwell has played only 11 of a possible 26 Shield games for Victoria since his most recent Test match, largely through national limited-overs duty. However, being left out when available for the first round of this summer’s Shield campaign was a blow, although he said spending time playing club cricket for Fitzroy-Doncaster in Melbourne this season had helped him regain perspective.
“You can get caught up in results a lot as a cricketer and that can drive your mood a lot of the time,” Maxwell said. “I tried to take that out of it and found I was just going out there and enjoying it. The time I spent back at Fitzroy-Doncaster was perfect timing. I got to spend some time with my mates, play relaxed park cricket and the results didn’t really matter that much.
“It was obviously trying to get a win for my team, but to be out there and just take the pressure off myself, relax and enjoy the game of cricket, which is why we play, because we love it… To reignite that love by playing park cricket was perfect timing. Since then I’ve been trying to look at it more positively and not worry about results as much.”
And after being fined by Australia’s team leadership group last month for his comments about batting below Wade in Victoria’s line-up, where would Maxwell like to bat if picked in the Test side?
“I don’t care. Anywhere, 1 to 11.”
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo