Aaron Finch backs Glenn Maxwell to make a quick comeback
The omission of Glenn Maxwell from Australia’s limited-overs squad for the tour of India came as a surprise, but skipper Aaron Finch has backed the swashbuckling all-rounder to make a swift return. Finch further claimed that a three dimensional player like Maxwell can’t be kept in the fringes for a long time.
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Maxwell took an indefinite break from international cricket midway through the ODI series against Pakistan, owing to mental health issues. He did make himself available for the tour of India but he wasn’t included in favour of Marnus Labuschagne. The Australian middle-order batsman earned his maiden ODI call-up, owing to impressive performances in the red-ball format.
Meanwhile, Finch reiterated the fact that no player is out of contention from the national team. Australia are slated to tour India in January for a three-match ODI series. 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."
Meanwhile Australia’s head coach Justin Langer stated earlier that Maxwell was left out on the basis of performance. The star all-rounder hasn’t managed to score a half-century in his last 10 innings for Australia. He is expected to play a big part for the Melbourne Stars in the ongoing BBL.
Meanwhile, the Australian team management made several changes to the squad and excluded the likes of Nathan Lyon, Usman Khawaja and Shaun Marsh. However, Finch insisted that the door is open for everyone.
"(Lyon) can still play a future 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."