Things are set to go from bad to worse for Royal Challengers Bengaluru after their Australian batting great Glenn Maxwell suffered a serious thumb injury last night at the Wankhede Stadium. Maxwell had blown his thumb while playing against Mumbai Indians in their 6th match of the IPL 2024 league phase where the home team defeated the visitors in a one-sided affair by 7 wickets. And due to his thumb injury, Maxwell might miss RCB’s next match.
In fact, it has been a tough start to the 2024 season so far for Glenn Maxwell, who is considered a key batsman for RCB in the top-middle order.
His reputation as a power hitter has yet to take center stage and his latest injury setback will cause more tension in the Bengaluru dressing room. So far, only Virat Kohli has looked like the batsman who is in form and scoring runs consistently.
Last night was the first time in IPL 2024 that Kohli failed to score a single boundary and exited without reaching double figures.
The 35-year-old was sent packing by none other than Mumbai Indians’ frontline pacer Jasprit Bumrah for 3 runs. But RCB were fortunate that captain Faf du Plessis was stuck and Rajat Patidar was also able to overcome his poor patch in which he scored a combined 50 runs from the first 4 matches in which he batted.
Why can’t Glenn Maxwell play his best game?
In fact, Glenn Maxwell seems to be in some kind of rush this IPL 2024 season. The Big Show has also been very impatient with the bat and, without trying to adapt, the Australian has sought to hit every ball that comes his way. path.
Against the Chennai Super Kings (0) in the season opener, Maxwell made a poor shot selection when he gave a routine catch to MS Dhoni by just stealing a delivery from Deepak Chahar.
Against Punjab Kings (3), Glenn Maxwell took on a finger-spinning Harpreet Brar as he tried to make space to cut the ball offside, but instead dragged it towards the stumps.
Maxwell was beaten and caught out for pace in his third match against Lucknow Super Giants as he tried to duck a short delivery from fast pacer Mayank Yadav for his second duck of the season.
Then against Rajasthan Royals, Maxwell made the mistake he made against Punjab by trying to make space instead of simply dismissing a hard delivery from Nandre Burger.
Maxwell’s feet were wide apart as he tried to play the ball towards mid-wicket, but the ball came clattering into the stumps. And last night against MI, the Big Show, he again failed to judge Shreyas Gopal’s bowler’s movement.
The leggie got rid of it quite easily with a tight long googly that went straight to the pads as Glenn Maxwell tried to bowl it for a single.
Basically, all that’s stopping him from reaching his full potential is his predictability, shot selection, and of course, lack of patience. Will he be okay or not because of the thumb injury? Time will tell.