BENGALURU: Royal Challengers Bengaluru all-rounder Glenn Maxwell revealed that he elected to take a break from the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) as he looks to refresh himself physically and mentally but acknowledged that the game against Sunrisers Hyderabad was a bad one to miss out.
The experienced star, who has struggled for form this season, revealed that he asked the management to pick his replacement for their clash against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday.
RCB’s 25-run defeat was a run scoring fest as boundaries rained throughout the match. Riding high on performances from Travis Head and Heinrich Klaasen, SRH broke their record and set a new highest score in the IPL of 287/3.
After the record-breaking spectacle, Maxwell, with a smile on his face, acknowledged that it was a bad game to miss.
“I did notice during the powerplay that the pitch was not as slow and two-paced as it has been in the first few games. And I realised it was probably a bad game to miss; it would have been nice to be out there batting,” Maxwell said in the post-match press conference.
Since the beginning of the ongoing season, Maxwell has scored only 32 runs in six innings at an average of 5.33 and it includes three ducks as well.
Maxwell opend up about the conversation he had with skipper Faf du Plessis and the management and is looking to get back into a strong mental state, which would help him make impact for his team.
“For me, personally, it was a pretty easy decision. I went to Faf [du Plessis] and the coaches after the last game and said I felt it was probably time we tried someone else. I have been in this situation in the past where you can keep playing and get yourself deeper into a hole. I think now is actually a good time for me to give myself a bit of a mental and physical break, get my body right. If I’m required to get in during the tournament, I can hopefully get back into a really solid mental and physical space where I can still have an impact,” Maxwell said.
“We have had a pretty big deficiency straight after the powerplay, which has been my area of strength over the last couple of seasons. I felt like I wasn’t contributing in a positive way with the bat, and with the results and the position we find ourselves on the table, I think it’s a good time to give someone else an opportunity to show their wares, and hopefully, someone can make that spot their own,” he added.
Maxwell arrived in the IPL 2024 with a scorching form. Since last November, Maxwell has amassed 552 runs at an average of 42.46 in 17 T20 games. His impressive tally includes two centuries as well.
However, in the six innings in IPL, Maxwell got dismmised for a golden duck in the first match against CSK and has faced more than five balls only once against the Kolkata Knight Riders in the RCB’s third match. He raced to 28 runs in 19 deliveries before losing his wicket to Sunil Narine.
“T20 cricket can be like that sometimes – it’s a pretty fickle game. Even if you look at the first game, I ran one off the middle of the bat to the keeper. I picked up the length really well, saw a scoring opportunity, but opened the face a little bit too much. When you are going well, that goes wide of the gloves, you get a boundary, you are 4 off 1, and you are away for the tournament,” he said.
“I probably just haven’t got away – it’s as simple as that. In the first few games, I feel I made reasonably good decisions, but I was still finding ways to get out. It can happen in T20 cricket and when it snowballs like that, you can go searching and try too hard and forget the basics of the game,” he added. (ANI)
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