"I'll keep playing as long as people will have me" - Glenn Maxwell on his future plans
Glenn Maxwell intends to keep playing for Australia as long as the team requires him. The all-rounder is still considered a vital cog in the white-ball set-up and has been included in the Aussie squad for the upcoming tour of South Africa as well as the preliminary ODI World Cup team.
The 34-year-old faced a huge setback after the 2022 T20 World Cup in the form of a horrific leg injury. He sustained multiple fractures after slipping during a party and was ruled out of cricket for a significant while. Maxwell returned to action in the ODI series against India, where he was dropped after the first match.
He featured in the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), scoring 400 runs in 14 matches at a strike rate of 183.49. The Australian particularly relished batting at the franchise's home venue, the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, where he struck three fifties. He was recently seen partaking in the T20 Blast in England.
Ahead of Australia's crucial white-ball assignments in the form of the 2023 ODI World Cup and the 2024 T20 World Cup, Maxwell told reporters:
"I'll keep playing as long as people will have me, until they think that someone is more deserving of my spot, which is fine. Until then, I'll keep plugging along. I still feel fit, I still feel young, especially with the role I play. I still try to hit it to hotspots on the field, I'm not hiding at all."
Maxwell was part of Australia's 2015 World Cup-winning squad led by Michael Clarke. He has been in and out of the squad in recent times due to injuries and form concerns, but his experience will be valuable as Australia brace themselves for a transition phase, which includes him.
"It's a hard thing for a young player to come in and do that" - Glenn Maxwell on the difficulties of his role
Maxwell came in with a reputation as a pinch-hitter and has donned several roles over the course of his career, right from an opening batter to a finisher. His primary role, to this day, remains as a middle-order batter who can take on bowlers at will and finish off the innings if and when required.
Opining that the finisher's role is difficult for newcomers to fulfill on a consistent basis. Maxwell said:
"I've got a lot of scar tissue that's been built up from the mistakes I've made in that role. It's a hard thing for a young player to come in and do that role. When you have those young guys that come in, they might have success with their first game but a couple of games of failure, it's really hard to come back from. Sometimes you just get used to failure as an older person and you can sort of have the resilience to come back from it."
Australia have had the likes of Ashton Turner, Tim David, and several other candidates for the role in recent years. The Aussies' road to the ODI World Cup begins with a white-ball series against South Africa, starting on August 30.