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Australia’s long-delayed regeneration will now be enforced, and an arduous road lies ahead to craft a champion new team. Glenn Maxwell can be the first step.
Australia are on the brink. The Ashes are long gone. For all intents and purposes, they were surrendered during the first session of the fourth Test at Trent Bridge.
A batting line-up widely expected to dominate lies in ruins, with the glittering career of Michael Clarke the latest casualty. The regeneration of the team, perhaps long overdue, will now be enforced, with significant changes looming for Australia’s next assignment against Bangladesh.
However there is one Test remaining in the current Ashes series, and with it the comes an opportunity to begin the process of change with a certain highly-talented batting allrounder. This allrounder is, rather conveniently, already in England with Yorkshire, and who has just scored a brilliant 140 following a top-order collapse.
That man is Glenn Maxwell.
No doubt some will laugh at this proposal, remembering his ill-conceived stint as Australia’s No. 3 in the second Test against Pakistan at Abu Dhabi. Yet even in that calamitous match, he showed glimpses of class, if not temperament, in his second-innings 37 from 28.
A batsman of almost limitless potential, his first-class average, even hampered by a dearth of red-ball opportunities in recent times, is at 38.5 roughly comparable with most of the other contenders for Test call-ups.
Unlike his competitors, however, Maxwell is an established international player with 49 ODI caps and has played a number of brilliant innings of contrasting styles in a variety of conditions and high-class bowling attacks.
His brutal 102 from 51 balls against Sri Lanka in the recent World Cup was phenomenal, but a less-remembered innings in the Tri-Series final against England showcased his versatility.
With Australia’s total a precarious 4/60, Maxwell – having spent 16 balls making his way to 3 – began a mature, gritty salvage effort with Mitchell Marsh. A difficult WACA surface and a probing English attack spearheaded by Steven Finn, James Anderson and Stuart Broad forced Maxwell to check his aggression somewhat and apply himself to the task of playing a substantial knock.
After cautiously reaching 56 from 76 balls in the 33rd over, he began to play his shots and, in partnership with Marsh, set the stage for a whirlwind 50 from James Faulkner. Though he ultimately fell to an awful shot for 95 from 98, he had dragged Australia to a winning total and later went on to polish off a man-of-the-match performance with the ball.
Rightly, no amount of one-day brilliance will entirely convince good judges of a player’s suitability for the unmatched trials of Test cricket. But Maxwell’s 140 from 144 for Yorkshire against Durham in the County Championship last night provided a portrait of his attributes in the format that the man himself considers his game to be best suited to.
Against an attack including highly-rated seamer Graham Onions, Australian John Hastings and clear Division 1 leading wicket-taker Chris Rushworth, Maxwell played with flair even after walking to the crease with the team at 4/73, which quickly became 5/79.
There will be concerns, of course, over his brazen style, especially given the farcical manner of Australia’s Trent Bridge debacle, with the batsmen blasted for being too aggressive under the circumstances. The reality is, however, that the collapse was caused by far more fundamental technical problems: an inability to play the ball late or under the eyes.
There are no guarantees that Maxwell can solve this problem – but who else can? Experts such as Ricky Ponting have identified a generational problem against the moving ball, which can only be remedied by experience and practise in hostile conditions.
Right now, the selectors have a golden opportunity to give one of the players of the future such valuable experience. At 26, Maxwell is at the ideal age to begin his Test career in earnest.
Such a prodigious batting talent cannot be allowed to slide back into the wilderness. It’s time for Glenn Maxwell to forget about his bowling, and lay claim to the middle-order position that can be his for a decade. Right now Australia need a new run-scorer at 5 or 6, and Maxwell has the ability to be that man.
Now is the time for the Australian selectors, coaching staff and team to back Glenn Maxwell to the hilt, and then sit back and watch the fireworks.
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