In the second T20 International against India on Wednesday, Glenn Maxwell walked in to bat with Australia’s score at 22/2 after four overs.
Skipper Aaron Finch, woefully out of touch, had just returned to the shed and the visitors needed 169 runs to win from 96 deliveries. There was just one more recognised batsman to follow, before the all-rounders came in.
At this juncture, Australia needed someone to take the game by the scruff of its neck. They needed a match-winner. And that’s precisely what Maxwell is – a match-winner. The right-hander went on to score an unbeaten 113 from 55 deliveries, with seven boundaries and nine sixes, to hand his team a memorable series victory with two balls to spare. Not many players in world cricket can do what Maxwell did on Wednesday. Not many players can boss the game like that. To smash the ball to every corner of the ground at will, and not let the opposition settle for a moment.
In the first T20I in Vizag, too, Maxwell’s 43-ball 56 had played a key role in Australia’s victory. That night, he couldn’t take his team over the line himself and had to rely on Pat Cummins and Jhye Richardson’s last-over heroics. He was upset with himself for throwing his wicket away and said that he’d “make amends” in the next game. And, make amends he did.
Not a single bowler was spared by Maxwell in the second T20I at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Not even Jasprit Bumrah, widely regarded by many as the finest bowler in world cricket at the moment. It was a chanceless knock. He cut, pulled, flicked, swept, drove, and slapped his way to a third T20I hundred.
There weren’t just his trademark unorthodox shots, the 30-year-old showed plenty of elegance, too. He lofted the ball straight back over the bowler’s head and over covers with ease. He hardly ever premeditated his strokes.
Rather, he simply stood still and let his instincts take over. Of course, these very instincts have often led to his downfall in his international career, but on Wednesday, they allowed him to give the world a glimpse of what he’s truly capable of.
Raw talent
That’s the things about raw talent, isn’t it? The ability to captivate and thrill. Players like Maxwell are difficult to ignore. At times, they can frustrate you with the manner of their dismissals. You’re left wondering how a player with such immense ability can throw his wicket away in such a reckless manner. But then you wonder some more – maybe, at times, these players have more than one stroke for a particular delivery and get lost somewhere in the decision-making process. And then you decide not to look the other way because there’s just too much potential in such players.
At least that’s what the Indians have done over the years. Mahendra Singh Dhoni persisted with Rohit Sharma, during the early stage of the latter’s career, because of the sheer talent in the Mumbaikar.
Rohit wasn’t known for his consistency in any format back then, but the team management kept going back to him because it saw something special in him. Even Virat Kohli, it seems, has given KL Rahul an extended rope for the same reason. The batsman from Karnataka has struggled to put together a string of good performances over the past year or so, but he keeps getting a look in every format because of the promise he shows.
Maxwell, though, hasn’t been as lucky. He has played 90 One-Day Internationals and 59 T20Is for Australia, but has managed just seven Test appearances. One of those appearances came in 2017 in Ranchi, where he made a patient 104 on a difficult wicket against a top-quality Indian attack. However, he hasn’t played a Test match in a year and a half now.
It’s surprising that Australian national selector Trevor Hohns and coach Justin Langer have such little faith in the Victorian’s red-ball abilities. Maxwell, on his part, has made it clear that he hasn’t given up on Test cricket just yet. He has decided to skip the Indian Premier League this year and will instead play County Cricket for Lancashire with the World Cup in mind. The eventual goal for him is to get into the Australian Test team for the Ashes later this year.
“This is a pretty clear sign that I still want to play Test cricket. To knock back a chance to play was a big decision and a tough decision. It’s not something you make lightly, but the thought of playing Test cricket again still burns deep. I still desperately want to get back out there and I still think I have a lot to offer the Australian Test team,” Maxwell was quoted as saying by the Herald Sun.
If his innings on Wednesday is anything to go by, Maxwell surely has the talent in him to play all three formats of international cricket.
Time will tell whether or not he makes a Test comeback, but if he can keep up his current form, Australia might just triumph on English soil a few weeks before the start of the Ashes.
