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Entering the World Cup, Glenn Maxwell was struggling for form and had failed to deliver the big innings he desperately needed to consolidate his place in the one-day side.
At 26, the man they call ‘The Big Show’ should have been entering the prime of his career, yet he was struggling for runs and potentially in the worst headspace of any player in the Australian team.
During this time he copped an absolute pounding from the media and public, with many believing he didn’t deserve his place in the World Cup squad.
Well, Maxwell has well and truly proven his worth in the Australian side over the past six weeks.
He is the second-highest scoring Australian, holds the highest Australian strike rate, and has the country’s best average. On top of this he has picked up five wickets, a number at key stages in matches.
So how has a player under so much pressure heading in to the tournament turned things around so quickly? Let’s start with his favourite stroke, and potentially the Australian public’s least favourite stroke, the reverse sweep.
Once upon a time, the reverse sweep a risky shot, very rarely used. Difficult to execute and typically lacking power, it was unheard of for players to consider reverse sweeping a ball for six.
Pakistani brothers Mushtaq and Hanif Mohammad first introduced the reverse sweep to the sport in the 1960s. Mushtaq initially used it because the only place he thought he could realistically score was to hit towards third-man. Batting against an off-spinner he felt the only way to achieve this was to paddle the ball in that direction.
The shot caused significant controversy at the time, bowler Fred Titmus actually appealed, arguing that such a shot was illegal and against the spirit of the game. The umpire was having none of it and actually applauded the Mohammad’s innovation.
The shot has spread like wildfire over the past 50 years and now almost every batsman in world cricket has it in their repertoire. It should not be a controversial shot anymore.
Maxwell claims that he is more comfortable playing the reverse sweep than playing a cover drive. There should be nothing wrong with such a statement; every batsman has a favourite shot and if that is his, so be it. Michael Hussey used the reverse sweep to great success during his career and we never heard anyone criticising him for using it.
Criticism of Maxwell’s use of the shot comes from a deeper frustration. Prior to the World Cup the media and fans used this shot as proof that he didn’t deserve his place in the team. They used both his Test struggles and early 2015 failures in the one-day team as further fuel for his banishment from the Australian cricket setup.
(Let’s not forget that just 18 months ago we were calling for Mitchell Johnson to be banished from Australian cricket.)
The thing is, you could argue that Maxwell deserved his spot in the team for that disastrous second Test against Pakistan. He was in excellent form at the back-end of the Sheffield Shield season, and it looked as though he had learnt how to control his aggression.
Admittedly the Sheffield Season ended eight months before he was selected, but I can understand the faith the selectors placed in him. There is no denying his expertise at playing spin bowling and if he had truly turned a corner his place in the team was warranted.
Maxwell has an excellent batting technique. It is far better than opener (and Maxwell’s housemate) Aaron Finch, who has been in dreadful form during the World Cup. After being dropped on 0 against England and scoring a century, he recorded scores of 14, 4, 24, 20 and 2 before his innings of 81 against India in Thursday’s semi final.
Finch’s poor technique has been exposed by some of the best bowlers in the world, yet he keeps his place in the team, because he isn’t flashy and plays ‘real’ cricket shots. He doesn’t get out playing a reverse sweep or a swat-cut from a metre outside leg stump.
Entering that Test against Pakistan the hope was that Maxwell would combine his rock-solid technique with his excellent play of spin, with his newfound maturity enabling him to bat with composure.
Clearly we now know that he was unable to do so, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.
If Maxwell wants to play the reverse sweep, or whatever shot enters his mind as the bowler releases the ball, instead of criticising him for using the shot, we should discuss whether it was the right time in the match, the right delivery, and if the field placings allowed for the shot to be played.
In an ODI against India in January, Maxwell attempted a reverse sweep with third man and point up inside the circle; he hit it straight to point. The crowd actually booed and Twitter lit up. The criticism wasn’t why it was not the right time to use the shot, it was simply criticism that he would attempt to use the shot.
It was not the right shot to play with that field positioning and plenty of space on the on side, but that wasn’t in the discussion.
We shouldn’t be judging shots on their outcome; we should be judging them for what they are. This is what has plagued Kevin Pietersen his entire career – if he hits a spinner down the ground for six two balls in a row and goes for a third, doesn’t connect and gets caught at long-off, he is immediately criticised for going for one six too many. He had just connected on the two previous deliveries, why should he believe that he’s not going to connect with the third? Pietersen ceases to be the batsman that scored over 8000 Test runs when he goes into balls thinking he might mis-hit.
Coincidentally, Pietersen has been hailed a hero in recent months for his reverse-sweep exploits, repeatedly reverse-sweeping bowlers for six in the Big Bash. Maybe some of those balls weren’t reverse sweep-able, but they went for six, hence we hail the shot as brilliant, outstanding, even smart, purely because of the outcome.
Today, Maxwell is receiving some of the praise the Pietersen was receiving, however certainly not to the same extent. He has received some praise for his flashy shots, but a lot of his success has also been put down to luck.
But if you speak to any advanced metrics buff, they will tell you that luck plays no part in sport. Everything happens for a reason and numbers can be used to find that reason. Numbers don’t necessarily explain Maxwell’s recent successes but one thing can: his technique.
Maxwell’s technique is the bedrock to all of his weird, wonderful and wacky shots.
Obviously technique can only get you so far and shot selection is a vital aspect of being an international cricketer. Maxwell’s shot selection is poor at times and deserves to be criticised but it has shown improvement in recent months.
I’m actually quite disappointed that Maxwell hasn’t had the opportunity to play Sheffield Shield cricket over the past two months. Yes Australia need him in the World Cup, but I wanted to see how far he has come in the longer form of the game. This is especially important given the year Australia has ahead, with a trip to the West Indies followed by a five-Test Ashes series in England, the holy grail of Australian Test cricket.
And Australia has holes in the Test bating line-up. If you look at the six who played against India at the SCG, Joe Burns hasn’t solidified his place in the team, Shaun Marsh has struggled to live up to the hype throughout his career, and Michael Clarke only played one Test all summer. On top of this, Shane Watson has failed to lock down the number three position.
Potentially three spots are up for grabs, with Clarke likely to take one of them. Maxwell didn’t get an opportunity to stake his claim for one of the others.
We have spent the past six weeks watching Maxwell coming in to bat with 10 or 15 overs left in an innings. As such, his job is to score as many runs as possible in as short a time as possible, which doesn’t translate to Test cricket. For Test cricket Maxwell has to show more responsibility when choosing when to defend and when to attack.
One player who Maxwell can learn a lot from is opener David Warner. Warner has successfully made the transition from short form basher to one of the top-10 Test batsmen in the world, having learnt to play with composure and responsibility, yet remaining an attacking Test player.
If Maxwell can learn a bit of self-control he has the potential to be a mainstay in the Australian Test cricket team for the next decade. If the Australian public can embrace his attacking nature and learn to judge his shot selection based on the actual decision, not the outcome, he will become one of the most popular cricket players in this country, if not the world.
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