Australian white-ball star Glenn Maxwell has distanced himself from potentially taking over as the next T20 captain and says he’s keen to extend his international career as long as possible rather than selling himself as a short-form gun for hire.
The 34-year-old is feeling primed after a broken leg ruined his 2022/23 summer and can’t wait to be a part of the T20 leg of Australia’s white-ball tour of South Africa starting later this month ahead of the 50-over World Cup in India that begins in October.
Maxwell loomed as an option to skipper those teams, with West Australian veteran Mitch Marsh getting the nod while Pat Cummins continues to recover from a wrist injury he suffered in the Ashes.
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While the captaincy isn’t on his radar, Maxwell is keen to stay in the Australian set-up for as long as possible rather than earning the big bucks in T20 leagues around the world.
“It‘s just hard to plan. I’ll keep playing as long as people will have me,” he said.
“Until they think that someone is more deserving of my spot, which is fine. Until then, I’ll keep plugging along and trying to win games as much as I can.
“I still feel fit, I still feel young, especially with the role I play. I still try to get to hotspots in the field so I’m not hiding at all.
“I think it‘s nice in my role that you can have someone who’s experienced. It’s a hard thing for a young player to come in and do that role.”
Maxwell will return home after the three T20s in South Africa, missing the five ODIs, for the birth of his first child before rejoining the squad in India for the World Cup.
Australia has named a fairly experienced squad for the South African tour, with a couple of fresh faces like Aaron Hardie and Spencer Johnson set to get their first crack overseas.
These series are always handy for younger players trying to break into the national side, but Maxwell says experience is crucial and it’s why he wants to stay on as the team’s batting anchor who can change a game in the space of five overs.
That role is something he thrives on, but it also has led to some big whacks coming the other way from the media who have been happy to lay the boot in whenever he fails with the bat.
“I‘ve got a lot of scar tissue that’s been built up from the mistakes I’ve made in that role and I think that sort of comes with experience,” said Maxwell, who has scored the 18th most T20 international runs and has the best strike rate of anyone in the top 20.
“You need that sort of built-up resilience. You need to have made those mistakes to be better at that middle-order role.
“When you have those young guys that come in, they might have success with their first game but a couple of games of failure, it’s really hard to come back from.
“Sometimes you just get used to failure as an older person and you can sort of have the resilience to come back from it. I’ll play as long as I’m wanted.
“The media will point out two games back-to-back when you‘ve failed, but they’ll discount the previous 18 months of hard work you’ve done in another format.
“I think having the resilience and having the backing in the change room consistently from your teammates and your coaching staff has been one of the things that has given me confidence, going out there knowing that I‘ve got the confidence behind me.”
Maxwell could easily escape the scrutiny if he retired from international cricket and focused on earning the big bucks in T20 comps around the world, but that’s not something he’s thought of even though it would make life a bit easier with a baby boy on the way.
“At least I could control my own calendar without having anything pop up at the last minute,” he joked.
“It certainly looks better as far as time-wise. Even just missing birthdays, weddings and life events.
“I think that appeals to me but in saying that, I‘ve still got a fair way to go in my cricket career I think, so it’s probably a bit too early to be thinking about that.
“There are still some things I really want to tick off in my career. I think if I retired early, I probably wouldn’t be doing justice to my younger self who had all these goals and aspirations. There are still a few things I want to tick off.”
