Glenn Maxwell and Peter Siddle shared a brief celebration at the pub on Thursday night when India, bowled out for 46 by New Zealand, fell one short of Australia’s Test total in Cape Town 13 years ago.
“We were watching with Sidds and he was talking about the 47 all out [by Australia in Cape Town in 2011], so as soon as they got out for 46 he was fist pumping and loving it,” Maxwell told this masthead.
Cricketer Glenn Maxwell is pleased with his comeback.Credit: Getty Images
“It shows anything is possible. It was pretty amazing, extraordinary to watch, we’d just finished our day at Junction Oval, checked the score, it was 6-34 and by the time we got to the pub for dinner I think it was 9-40, and all happening so fast.
“Then the way New Zealand batted on that wicket against [Jasprit] Bumrah, with the ball going sideways and seaming all over the place was pretty cool to watch. Pretty hard, brutal Test cricket.”
The extraordinary scenes from Bengaluru were a reminder of Test cricket’s many uncertainties, but Maxwell’s reaction also spoke volumes for how much he is at peace this summer.
Firmly in plans for next year’s Sri Lanka tour after proving his fitness, he will not be waiting by the phone for a Test call-up on home soil even after Cameron Green’s back surgery opened a spot in the middle order.
“I’ve been able to be really at peace with that, which is strange next to four or five years ago where that might’ve got to me,” Maxwell said after putting his repaired leg through a second XI game during the week.
“I might’ve got ahead of myself where I was thinking, ‘This is my turn, this is my chance, I feel like I deserve this’. I don’t feel any of that now. Pretty comfortable at home with my little one and my wife, happy to do my rehab and prepare for whatever I’ve got in front of me now. It’s a much healthier place to be.”
Apart from pulling off the typical Maxwell move of crushing his first ball of the game for six, the game at Junction Oval was primarily about ensuring his body would respond well to the rigours of four days’ consecutive cricket.
Maxwell will now play the domestic one-day game after the Sheffield Shield encounter with NSW which starts on Sunday, and then follow up with an ODI series against Pakistan before a possible Shield return against Queensland later in November.
“I was getting a bit of itchy feet waiting, so I went to them [the selectors] and said there’s a second XI game,” Maxwell said. “Why don’t we play that one, or play the first two days then the Shield game, try to manufacture five or six days of cricket before the one-day series, and as it looks it’ll be the second XI then the one-dayer.
“It was the biggest confidence booster for me, I spent the whole match on the field, completely at peace with my leg and how it was going.”
Maxwell’s freakish broken leg in 2022 took a long time to get over, and the story of his recovery to play the innings of his life in the 2023 ODI World Cup is the central thread of The Showman, the book he has penned with Adam Collins that is released by Simon and Schuster at the end of the month.
“I’m more at peace with what I’m limited to and a little bit more excited when I can see the ball and react and go side to side and don’t have any thoughts like ‘Did that hurt’ or ‘Is that a worry now’,” Maxwell said. “The whole week was a huge confidence booster.
“To have a few doubts before the game and not sure how four days of cricket was going to go, and to come out the other side, it shows there was a good reason not to play the first Shield game. It’s given me a huge amount of confidence for the summer.”
Beyond November is the Big Bash League, where Maxwell will turn out for the Stars without once wondering whether he should be playing in the Test team at home. Instead, any stray thoughts will look ahead to Sri Lanka and the chance to play in the sort of dramatic game currently playing out in India.
“Knowing the preparation over there in Sri Lanka, the first few training sessions are so much fun, getting into those nets and conditions,” Maxwell said.
“It’ll be great to have a hit or two in manufactured conditions here it’s not overly necessary, having been there a few times with a pretty good understanding of what I’m going to face.”
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