"I'd sell my soul for total control."

Glenn Maxwell's inner monologue most likely resembled the chorus of The Motels' absorbing gem.

For him, walking into the bar adjoining the team hotel after the Pune triumph must have hurt.

On the wall were cocktails named after Australian players — four of the squad honoured with this quirk. He was one of them.

"Hit 'em Maxwell!" the board read.

It would have hurt, because it would have reminded him that for all his local notoriety, he was serving the on-field drinks to his team-mates.

Maxwell is huge here. A legitimate IPL celebrity. In the shortest form of the game's marquee tournament, he's brilliant and adored. And consequentially, filthy rich.

For most in life, that would be ample. Not Maxwell. It may be his most lucrative pursuit, but not the most meaningful.

Rather, what he truly treasures is wearing his baggy green and, just months ago, he feared it may never happen again.

Imagine the response to telling a pub full of punters Maxwell would break his bat during his first innings back.

Maxwell would broke his bat during his first innings back. ( AP: Aijaz Rahi )

It would have been ugly, drawing out deeply-held views of a temperament ill-equipped for the red ball caper. That he had zero of that precious control.

They would have cited his previous Test. In the first innings of that UAE misadventure, Maxwell slapped 37 carefree runs in 28 balls before losing his stumps.

The second time around, he was sent in at three with Australia chasing 603. He reverse swept within minutes and was out the following over.

No-one forgets the shot; many did not forgive.

'I got pretty low'

Speaking to the ABC after resetting his career with a wondrous maiden ton, Maxwell detailed how frustrating that episode was. How he was picked to deploy his bag of tricks and followed orders.

This theme, of a man misunderstood, would haunt his two-and-a-half years in exile from this team.

It was never meant to be this long. After an instrumental hand in the 2015 World Cup win, it was assumed Maxwell's prolonged Test opportunity was coming. Selectors said they had a careful plan.

Instead, the opposite. A cancelled tour, a suspension, a fine for saying too much. Dropped from the Victorian team for trying to jump ship.

2016 was meant to be the year he "broke open world cricket".

The accepted wisdom around Maxwell is that he is a born match-winner. ( AP: Aijaz Rahi )

Instead, he was sacked from the ODI side for the first time in four years.

"I got pretty low," Maxwell recalled of his annus horribilis in an enjoyable and candid post-century press conference.

"I doubted whether I'd play Test cricket again."

But with India next stop, he was always destined for that plane.

When Mitchell Marsh's shoulder succumbed, he was back in the frame, then when the Ranchi pitch appeared conducive to his spin, into the XI.

Maxwell said he was "filled with joy" when told of his recall, but "didn't want to waste the opportunity".

A calm realism illustrative of the rickety journey he had been on.

"When I played that last game in Abu Dhabi ... I know how bad that felt. I just wanted to make it count," he said.

Maxwell wanted trust back

The accepted wisdom around Maxwell is that he is a born match-winner.

With Australia needing one victory for such an unexpected trophy retention, he could give India the old Maxwell ball treatment and bury them in a slew of slaps and heaves and wallops.

But what about coming in at 4-140, on afternoon one, to consolidate an innings threatening to go off-piste?

It is doubtful our mythical pub focus group would have backed a positive outcome. It was what the public did not see, however, that mattered most in this tale.

Reports emerged of a Maxwell net session in Dubai where he was compelled to defend for an hour.

No sweeping. No swiping. If the side were committing to a stringent defence-first philosophy, this was proof positive he would sign up.

Along those same lines, Maxwell was already trying to give his reputation a polish.

If trust had been lost, he wanted it back.

"I did everything I could to change people's perceptions of what they thought Glenn Maxwell was doing," he said.

This attitude shift, he believes, led selectors back to him again.

Maxwell had opportunity to prove he could be more

Now joining Steve Smith, he had a prized opportunity to prove them right and show he could be something considerably more than before.

It began with half a dozen defensive postures against some penetrative reverse swing — setting the tone for the four hours that followed.

One criticism of Maxwell is that he cannot soak up pressure without moving the game forward on his own accord. That he basically cannot help himself.

Well, this time he was going to. Singles were offered and taken, but always followed by defence. Only singles until he was fully set.

It is hard to fathom Maxwell ever before facing 56 balls before scoring a boundary. This was that time. When he did, it was over Jadeja's head, straight from the manual, before returning to careful accumulation.

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The next boundary came from his 90th delivery.

Now it was India under pressure, attempting to break Maxwell's concentration with a part-timer. He need not change a thing.

Fortune came on 67, Jadeja glancing his glove, but this time it was luck earned.

The next ball was popped over spinner's head for six, a reminder Maxwell does not have to trade in his power for patience.

He was 71 runs further along than the last time he played a reverse sweep in Tests when rolling it out this time. It did not work, it was promptly put away.

It was not that Maxwell ruled the shot out, he said later, but the bowling just was not there for it. The definition of good batting.

The new day did not change the script, other than to carve away boundaries before the Indian seamers found their range. Into the 90s. What he had dreamed of.

"I thought about it all night. I went through about 300 to 400 different scenarios that could've happened the next day. Most of them weren't good," he said.

You can laugh when the story ends well.

'I can finally show people with results'

Nurdling a 99th run, it was inevitable Maxwell would be tested one more time by Jadeja — and duly was with six probing turners.

Our protagonist refused to bite.

Moments later, he had done it.

It inspired a guttural response before literally leaping into his captain's outstretched arms.

Maxwell literally leaped into his captain's outstretched arms. ( AP: Aijaz Rahi )

Maxwell looked a man who realised his life, right then, could be changing forever.

"So much emotion fell out of me as soon as I got that hundred," he said.

"Even thinking about it now, I've got a frog in my throat. It's as special a moment as I've had in my career."

Barring the extraordinary, Maxwell now plays the first Ashes Test in November.

He is determined for it to be the making of him.

Maxwell looked a man who realised his life, right then, could be changing forever. ( AP: Aijaz Rahi )

"I've always felt red-ball cricket is my best format," he said.

"To be able to show that at Test level is something I'm extremely proud of. And yeah, I can finally show people with results instead of just talking."

This match will only get harder for the visitors. India showed in Bangalore they do not quit with so much on the line, so the Australian bowlers now have their own plans to persist with, their own patience to prove.

For an exemplar, they should look no further than their new number six.

Total control, at long last.