MAKE A STRONGER CASE

Snubbed Maxwell confident of proving detractors wrong

by Cricbuzz Staff • Published on

Glenn Maxwell failed to make it to the squad for the UAE tour © Getty

Disappointed after being snubbed for the upcoming two-Test series against Pakistan, Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has remained positive about his red-ball future and believes that he still has time to prove his abilities as a dependable batsman in Australia's middle-order.

The selectors named a largely inexperienced 15-man squad, with as many as five uncapped players, but the omission of the 29-year old all-rounder turned out to be a surprise. Maxwell was part of Australia's sub-continent tour of India and Bangladesh in 2017 and had done reasonably well, making his first-ever Test hundred against India in Ranchi.

Already missing Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft - the trio are serving bans for their part in the 'sandpapergate fiasco' during Australia's last tour, of South Africa earlier this year - the lack of experience in the middle-order was cited as one of the possible reasons for a Maxwell comeback for the Pakistan series. Instead, the selectors went with recent form and picked players who performed well during the 'A' tour of India.

Also going against Maxwell was the lack of big hundreds, both at the international as well as domestic level. Speaking to SEN Radio on Thursday (September 13), Maxwell said he understood the reasons for his snub and was looking forward to work on his shortcomings.

"(Trevor Hohns, the chairman of selectors, explained) the fact that my numbers at Test level don't stand up over the last few years when I've been included," Maxwell told SEN Radio.

"Now, I just need to make more runs. Hopefully, I can pile on enough runs this summer to keep pushing my case forward. I had a pretty good year last year, so now I've just got to have another good year this year and hope selections go my way at some stage," he added.

The all-rounder wasn't part of Australia's A team on their recent tour of India and said he was under the impression that he was being rested by Cricket Australia (CA) ahead of the series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

"I suppose the disappointment from my side is I didn't get an opportunity to play any cricket over the last couple of months," he said.

"I had a few offers to play county cricket in England and they were initially knocked back with an opportunity to go and play in India in the A series. To get told not to play in the A series and have a rest, and I was understanding of that and their reasoning behind that... I was hoping that was a positive note to go to Dubai (to play Pakistan). But obviously, that wasn't the case," Maxwell added.

Despite being ignored by the selection panel, Maxwell believes he has the game to succeed at the highest level and is looking forward to the upcoming domestic season. "I feel like I've still got some really good cricket years ahead of me," he said. "If I continue to play the way I have been in the last 12 months, the selections will eventually go my way. I feel like I'm getting better and better. Hopefully, this is another year where I can prove people wrong and put a lot of runs on the board," Maxwell concluded.

© Cricbuzz

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