An average of 15.42 on 13 innings at just 108 runs was a terrible season for any batsman. And when it is IPL and you are Glenn Maxwell that is a crime. Australian superstar all-rounder Maxwell played for Kings XI Punjab in the IPL 2020. He was picked as a scarce resource in the auction for a whopping INR 10.75 crores. He came into the tournament on the back of a series-winning hundred against England at Old Trafford.
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He was undoubtedly one of the main stars of the team. Despite a healthy season with the bat by the skipper KL Rahul and a few great innings from Chris Gayle & Mayank Agarwal. Punjab could not make it to the playoffs. Maxwell’s low performance cost a high price for the team. Despite his bad start Punjab still backed him for the whole season because of his superhuman abilities on a cricket ground. But sometimes life will hit you with a brick and that happened with Maxwell.
In a recent interview on 20th November, he said “Actually everything was in batsman’s favour. You can see KL played some brilliant cricket so
It didn’t have anything to do with the pitches at all,” said Maxwell on Friday (November 20). “I suppose it was more to do with the amount of time I had left in the game most of the time. I was either rebuilding or trying to go from ball one with only a couple of balls left. If you don’t hit it, you’re in a bit of trouble. I don’t take too much out of it. I’m still training as hard as ever and still working on the right things.
He returned home and prepared for the upcoming India series. He said it would be a comparative series for both of the sides. He was jogging and walking. He also added “It was just about getting outside for 3 hours and enjoying some fresh air. I sort of put the tools down a little bit, just try to work on fitness, have a bit of a runaround and just try and stay mentally fresh and get ready for what’s a big summer coming up”
In the year 2014 at this same UAE venue Maxi scored 552 runs in 16 innings. He was selected for the national team later that year for this amazing IPL run. He started as an off-spin all-rounder turned into a full-time batsman. He scored a world cup century back in 2015. There is no doubt about his class and abilities. But always a question mark on his way of batting or approach with the bat. He plays all over 360° shorts and sometimes gets out in a silly manner.
Maxwell says this poor performance of the bat in the IPL hasn’t demoralized Maxwell too much, who believes that the mental health break he took last year holds him in good stead in order to face struggles related to form or even the ones that the pandemic has thrown up.
“I think it was a very good time to go through something like that where I was able to sort of put some groundwork into a miserable situation. This year has certainly been a massive test of it and just sort of put some of my learnings and helped other people through it as well. And be a shoulder for other people to lean on. It’s something that I probably didn’t expect last year but to be able to handle different kinds of tough periods and being able to help myself through those tough periods has been very keen as well.
“I’m better equipped with dealing with those sorts of things now. And just looking at the bigger picture and understanding my role within the Australian side, trying to put the IPL aside and think about the bigger picture of what I need to do to get ready for every game and just know that I’m doing the right things and that when the time comes when I need it, I can still perform really well.”
Maxwell has now been away from home since August when Australia had toured England. He scored his second one-day century in the final game of the series, In his knock of 108, he played all over the ground and smashed 7 huge maximums. Maxwell batted at No.7 in the ODI series and scored a century and a fifty in three innings.
But in this year’s IPL he did not even smash a single six in the entire season. That was a surprise for fans. He is taking charge of his mental and fitness part. He is hopeful for the India series at least he will try to forget the IPL incident and start again from where he left off.
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