AS AUSTRALIA begin their search for batsmen who can be counted on to score runs all around the world, Glenn Maxwell might not seem the obvious port of call. But he is capable of outrageous improvisation with the bat, useful with the ball and breathtakingly good in the field. Twenty20 franchises splash the cash his way, so what need has he of Test cricket?
Financially, probably none at all, but he wants to see if he is good enough to cut it at the highest level. Well-placed judges think this week’s one-day series against England could launch him towards bigger things.
Maxwell has spent the summer with Yorkshire, the third county to sign him chiefly for his one-day skills, but earlier this month he hit a run-a-ball 140 against Durham at Scarborough after walking out at 73 for four, both sides having been dismissed for under 165 in their first innings on a juicy surface.
Jason Gillespie, Yorkshire’s Australia-born coach, thought it was a performance that might have prompted a call-up for the Oval Test match as Australia looked to the future with Michael Clarke and Chris Rogers retiring. “Glenn can be an exceptional long-form cricketer,” he said. “The way he played against Durham was superb. His technique is as good as anyone around.”
This view was endorsed by Richard Clifton, Maxwell’s junior coach in Melbourne. “He was technically correct at 14. He always liked to hit the ball and even as a young kid hit it very hard, although he has never used a heavy bat. I never saw him play a reverse sweep or a switch hit. The first time I saw him do that was on TV. His average in first-class cricket is pretty good and a lot of that is to do with technique.”
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Maxwell may have been held back by playing relatively little long-form cricket: he has made only 35 first-class appearances, compared to 218 in the one-day formats. But a return of five hundreds and an average of 40.4 is similar at the same stage to Steve Smith (five hundreds, average 41.6). The difference is that Smith had played 35 first-class matches by the age of 23; Maxwell is 26.
Nor may Maxwell’s cause have been helped by a desire to improvise, even at the risk of sometimes getting out in some unedifying ways.
“Even in his early days, he was always very strong left-handed,” Clifton recalled. “We would muck around at the end of [net] sessions and he would bat left-handed. He was very good at it. He plays shots that make people ask why he’s playing them, but he consistently hits them. He has the game for Test cricket. I’d love to see him play more red-ball cricket. He’s young enough to adapt to four or five-day cricket.”
In the Twenty20 at Cardiff tomorrow and the five ODIs, England should beware him in the field. A couple of seasons of baseball as a junior at Ringwood in Melbourne developed his powerful arm, as MS Dhoni found when Maxwell, with only one stump to aim at, ran out India’s captain in the World Cup semi-final.
Some think Maxwell might do himself a favour by putting himself first and entertaining the crowds second. Playing the way that he does has limited his haul of hundreds, which is the currency most selectors deal in. He was out three times in the nineties in ODIs before a 51-ball century against Sri Lanka that stands as Australia’s fastest in 50-overs cricket.
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The next two weeks of internationals will pit Maxwell against Yorkshire teammates Adil Rashid and Liam Plunkett but they will want him back if they reach the Lord’s final of Royal London Cup on September 19.