With Glenn Maxwell’s form leaving a lot to be desired in the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL), Australian batter Usman Khawaja feels that it isn’t relevant when the allrounder plays for the national team.
“The IPL form absolutely irrelevant. Maxy’s proven himself time and time again. Any player who’s performed over a long period of time understands that you can’t perform well every time you go out there,” Khawaja said to the West Australian.
“You take a few risks, particularly if you bat in the middle order, and T20 cricket’s not easy. But (for this tournament) if he gets one good innings, he’s away. It doesn’t matter what’s happened in the past. He’s not going to change his game and nor should he. Just keep going. He’ll find it,” he added.
Maxwell had a less than stellar IPL season with an average of 5.77 from nine innings, scoring just 52 runs from 10 matches.
He is currently on a break with Pat Cummins, Travis Head, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Starc, Cameron Green after the gruelling IPL schedule which saw Maxwell’s Royal Challengers Bengaluru team getting eliminated by the Rajasthan Royals in the Eliminator with the batter scoring a duck. All the players will join the national team for the T20 World Cup.
Meanwhile, a 9-man Australian cricket team had to enlist the help of selection chief George Bailey and fielding coach Andre Borovec in the T20 World Cup warm up match against Namibia due to the aforementioned players being unavailable.
Bailey and Borovec were also joined by batting coach Brad Hodge and head coach Andrew McDonald when captain Mitchell Marsh and Josh Hazlewood were off the field.
Despite all the setbacks, the 2021 T20 World Cup champions chased down Namibia’s total of 119/9 in dominant fashion with 10 overs remaining with a quickfire half century from David Warner (54*).
Australia’s next warm up match is against West Indies on May 31 and they will begin their T20 World Cup tournament proper on June 6 against Oman. They will then take on archrivals England on June, followed by a match against Namibia on June 12 and then end the group stage commitments with an encounter with Scotland.
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