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Beautiful one day, a disaster the next: That's Glenn to the Max

8th September, 2016
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Glenn Maxwell is rocks and diamonds, meaning he keeps getting overlooked. (AFP / Theo Karanikos)
Expert
8th September, 2016
31
1281 Reads

I like watching Glenn Maxwell play cricket.

I can’t really put a finger on why because, let’s be honest now, there are plenty of cricketers out there with the ability to perform that far outweighs that displayed by the maverick allrounder.

But, nevertheless, he’s provided plenty of entertainment for this particular viewer.

It could be his devil-may-care attitude to batting, which is seemingly based on nothing that resembles rational thought.

Perhaps it’s his off-spin, which is a pale shadow of the stuff served up by even someone like, say, Moeen Ali, but always looks like getting some poor unsuspecting soul out.

Or maybe it’s his fielding, which generally borders on the electric and is never run of the mill.

His imperfections add to the spectacle, as he’s never far away from doing something outlandishly good or devastatingly appalling.

The right shot at the wrong time, which sends the ball to an obscure part of the boundary; the wrong shot at the right time, which leads to a chance to utilize the hot water before anyone else; a catch out of nowhere that most wouldn’t attempt – let alone pull off – and so on.

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If you do it, do it colourfully; this is Maxwell to a tee. (Click to Tweet)

And this brings me to his latest effort, the explosive 145 from a meagre 65 deliveries in Australia’s thumping defeat of Sri Lanka in Pallekele in the first T20 international.

T20 cricket throws up the odd performance which makes you double take – they’ve probably become too prevalent, but that’s sporting evolution for you – yet this was outrageous even by the standards of the modern-day game.

Given that the man himself had disappeared from the scene and was not even considered for the preceding ODI series only served to make his matchwinning innings all the more eye-catching.

It could be that Australia have found an answer to the conundrum of how best to utilize Maxwell by default. Would he have opened had Aaron Finch, no slouch himself, been available? Probably not, but one man’s misfortune is another’s stroke of good luck, and the gift-wrapped opening has been jumped into with both feet.

Even if Finch’s return, whenever that may be, results in Maxwell being demoted from the opening position, the Australian hierarchy would be foolish to use him anywhere else but at first wicket down.

His gung-ho method will always mean he veers, even on a day-to-day basis, between man of the match and walking-wicket material. But if those doing the selecting are prepared to see him for what he is, then certainly in T20 he has to be on the teamsheet.

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It might need a slightly better run of form for the same principle to be applied to the 50-over format, but the way the game is going – especially on the faster scoring grounds of home – his inclusion is worth debating.

A more conservative and pragmatic approach wins games when the pitch demands it, but in the age of 350-plus scores a looser style has its place, and in Maxwell there are few looser.

That should mean his talk of returning to the Test match fray is taken with a healthy pinch of salt – does anybody really want to see a reckless reverse sweep five minutes after coming to the crease with the team in a struggling position?

But when the clothes are coloured and the ball is white, get him involved.

Consistency will never be Glenn Maxwell’s calling card, but consistency is overrated. Isn’t it?

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