Australias limited-overs skipper Aaron Finch has put his weight behind all-rounder Glenn Maxwell and felt a ‘three-dimensional’ player like him will soon make a comeback into the national side.
Maxwell had stepped away from cricket citing mental health issues during the T20I series against Sri Lanka in October before joining the pre-season camp of Melbourne Stars on Thursday and is leading the side in the ninth season of the Big Bash League.
While Maxwell made himself available for Australia’s tour to India, the all-rounder was not selected in the national squad while Marnus Labuschagne got his maiden call-up after some great show in the Test format.
Speaking on Maxwell, Finch said: “Obviously he’ll (Maxwell) be disappointed, like everyone who missed out is, but at the end of the day he just hasn’t got the runs required of a top-order player in one-day cricket recently.
“No doubt he’ll be back. He’s a gun. A three-dimensional player that can have such a huge impact. It’s just a matter of time, he’ll get some runs and be right back up there in the frame again,” Finch was quoted as saying by Cricket Australia (CA).
Maxwell had failed to score a half-century in his last 10 ODI innings for Australia. On the other hand, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh and off-spinner Nathan Lyon also failed to find a berth for the India tour, where Australia will play three ODIs starting January 14.
Finch also said despite of all this, the door isn’t shut for anyone. “He (Lyon) can still play a part. We saw the way he bowled in the World Cup when he got his opportunity.
“Just probably a change in our approach to the spinning all-rounder in Agar as opposed to the medium-pace all-rounder, that’s probably where someone had to drop out and unfortunately that was Nath (Lyon). At the end of the day it still comes down to picking the best side to win. Probably a slightly different structure to how we did it last time but still very happy with how it looks,” Finch added.