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Opinion
Australia’s chances of hoisting aloft their sixth ODI World Cup rest on the spinning fingers and surgical pins in the ankle of Glenn Maxwell.
The veteran all-rounder, who turns 35 next week, is carrying a huge burden into the tournament which begins for Australia on Sunday with a daunting first-up clash with Cup favourites India in Chennai.
Plenty has been made of Australia’s top-order batting and whether the pace trio of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc can fire on the unfriendly Indian conditions.
But the efforts of Maxwell will have the biggest bearing on whether the Aussies make the semi-finals of the 10-team tournament and defy the odds to regain the trophy.
His late-order hitting and status as Australia’s best all-round fielder will be crucial while he will also serve as their second spinner on the turning tracks after the selectors surprisingly replaced injured left-armer Ashton Agar in the squad with a specialist batter in Marnus Labuschagne while also nursing opener Travis Head through the first few weeks while his broken hand heals.
(Photo by Chris Hyde – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
Maxwell is undoubtedly in the twilight of what has been a fine career in the green and gold.
A World Cup winner in the ODI side in 2015 and the T20 outfit two years ago, he has been a superb player for more than 11 years in the international arena.
With 3495 runs at 33.6 with the bat, 64 wickets at 47.71 and 81 catches from his 129 ODIs, he’s amassed a record that puts him just outside the conversation for Australia’s greatest 50-over all-rounder.
Only all-time greats Steve and Mark Waugh, Shane Watson, Andrew Symonds and Allan Border have more runs and wickets for Australia in the format.
All-round stars
| ODIs | Wickets | Avge | Runs | Avge | |
| Steve Waugh | 325 | 195 | 34.67 | 7569 | 32.9 |
| Shane Watson | 190 | 168 | 31.79 | 5757 | 40.54 |
| Andrew Symonds | 198 | 133 | 37.25 | 5088 | 39.75 |
| Mark Waugh | 244 | 85 | 34.56 | 8500 | 39.35 |
| Allan Border | 273 | 73 | 28.36 | 6524 | 30.62 |
| Glenn Maxwell | 129 | 64 | 47.71 | 3495 | 33.6 |
He copped plenty of stick from the Australian fans during his playing career but these numbers show how Watson was not given due credit for his exploits with bat and ball.
They also underline how Border under-bowled himself during his lengthy career. Granted, scores were much lower during his era but the fact that his bowling average was lower than his batting clip demonstrates that he could have been more of a genuine all-rounder.
Maxwell has had an unusual career. You couldn’t say he has under-achieved but with his natural talent, it could have been a lot different, particularly in the Test arena.
He got his first baggy green on the ill-fated 2013 “Homeworkgate” tour of India and despite failing with bat, he picked up seven wickets with his off-spinners.
Maxwell was given another shot against Pakistan in the UAE the following year but squandered a golden chance to establish himself as a batting all-rounder on a road by getting bowled going the tonk even though he had smashed 37 from the first 27 deliveries he’d faced.
Like Damien Martyn against South Africa at the SCG in 1994, the selectors sent Maxwell into purgatory and when he finally got a recall for the third Test in India in 2017, he showed he could be a Test-class batter with a hard-nosed 104, batting four hours, as Australia fought out a draw.
But as was repeatedly the case, the selectors did not give him more than the minimum amount of time to find his feet in the Test team and after not doing much with the bat in the two subsequent matches in Bangladesh, he was dropped for the first Ashes Test at the Gabba with Usman Khawaja getting the nod.
Khawaja enjoyed a strong series as Australia thumped England 5-0 and Maxwell has not played a Test since although he would have been a strong chance of playing in India earlier this year but for his broken leg.
He is in a small group of players who scored a century in a career spanning seven Tests or less for Australia:
the original centurion Charles Bannerman (one in three, 1877-79)
Henry Graham (two in six, 1893-96)
Roger Hartigan (one in two, 1908)
Jack Badcock (one in seven from 1936-38 before World War II)
Jack Moroney (two in seven, 1949-51)
John Benaud (one in three, 1972-73),
Tony Mann (one as a nightwatchman in four, 1977-78)
Dirk Wellham (one in six, 1981-87)
Martin Love (one in five, 2002-03)
Kurtis Patterson (one in two matches in 2019)
and another Victorian like Maxwell who was not given much of a go, Brad Hodge (an unbeaten 203 among his six Tests, 2006-08).
Making Maxwell’s task in India that much harder is the fact that he is still being troubled by ankle pain from the broken leg he suffered last summer from a freak accident at a party.
The injury led to him coming home from the recent South Africa white-ball tour before stepping on the field and he’s only managed a few matches in the past four months after his stint with Birmingham on the English one-day circuit.
He picked up 4-40 in his comeback ODI clash with India and whacked 77 in a World Cup warm-up fixture against Pakistan to at least get some decent time in the middle but Maxwell is the kind of player who doesn’t necessarily need a bank of match practice to perform at his best anyway.
Maxwell has opted to delay follow-up surgery to remove the pins holding his ankle together until after the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and United States next June.
These two tournaments are likely to be the Victorian’s last major events for Australia as selectors start refreshing the ageing squad with new blood.
If he can finish his career with two more World Cups, it would be a fitting way for Maxwell to bow out.