Flamboyant Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell got the shock of his life when he learned that he had been axed from the team’s scheme of things for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka. The limited-overs specialist has endured a terrible patch in 2016 with failures in New Zealand and the Caribbean recently. Maxwell was also dropped midway into the tri-series in the West Indies as left-handed batsman Travis Head replaced him.
Nevertheless, the catchy middle order hitter is determined to be back in Australia’s limited overs squad after being axed. To back his case, however, Maxwell also doesn’t have the luxury of impressive statistics in the IPL or the Natwest T20 Blast. His returns in the 2016 World T20 were not satisfactory either.
The star all-rounder mentioned that his commitment to the side could never be questioned. “I’ve never questioned my commitment to my country and trying to do as well as I possibly can, I think just going from tournament to tournament to tournament, and playing so much cricket, all you’re thinking about is game day,” Maxwell said.
“You’re probably not concentrating so much on training days or gym days or recovery days, and instead just making sure you’re ready for game day.”I was so much in game-day mentality that I was probably starting to miss those little things – I wasn’t quite as focused on those little things as much as I should’ve been,” he admitted.
He further elaborated his state of mind when he came to terms with his axing. “So it was a pretty big mood swing. It was a pretty tough day, that’s for sure. “I was a bit thrown around, but there’s plenty of positives; lots of players miss out on squads and get dropped at different times, and you see their character shine through. I’m hoping I can show mine and get back in that squad and show that I deserve to be there.”
“I probably missed the little things, probably let them slip, not so much off the field as around the game things that I wasn’t as spot on with.”After I got dropped in the West Indies I started addressing those, started doing those things a lot better, and that change of attitude and knowing that I have to fight for my spot in every game and not getting complacent, I think that was probably the kick up the bum that I needed,” he concluded.