Australia’s Test opener Usman Khawaja termed Glenn Maxwell’s diminishing returns with the bat from the recently-concluded Indian Premier League as “absolutely irrelevant” as the all-rounder prepares for the upcoming ICC men’s T20 World Cup in the US and the West Indies, starting June 1.
Representing the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), that ended as the fourth best team in the season, Maxwell endured a forgettable campaign with the bat, scoring just 52 runs from 10 matches.
However, his Aussie teammate Khawaja feels that the all-rounder is an experienced campaigner and backed him to bounce back in time during Australia’s T20 WC campaign.
“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 is currently on a break along with Pat Cummins, Travis Head, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Starc, Cameron Green after the gruelling IPL 2024 campaign which saw Maxwell’s RCB team knocked out after the Eliminator in Ahmedabad with the batter falling for a duck. The six players are expected to join the national team for the T20 World Cup in a day or two.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, a nine-man Australia made light work of Namibia in their opening T20 World Cup warm-up match, led by an impressive new-ball spell from Josh Hazlewood, during which four members of their backroom staff helped make up the numbers.
At one stage there were four substitutes on the field for Australia comprising head coach Andrew McDonald, assistants Brad Hodge and Andre Borovec plus national selector George Bailey. Borovec, who is fielding coach, and Bailey were the first-choice subs when play began.
Despite the setbacks, the 2021 T20 World Cup champions chased down Namibia’s total of 119/9 in a dominant fashion inside 10 overs with a quickfire unbeaten half century from David Warner (54).
Australia’s next warm up match is against co-hosts West Indies on May 31 and they will open their T20 World Cup campaign on June 6 against Oman. They will then take on archrivals England on June 8, followed by a match against Namibia on June 12 and then end the group stage commitments with an encounter against Scotland on June 16.