The former Australia opener, whose transition to the commentary box was swift after his retirement, criticized Glenn Maxwell for his interest in playing Test cricket. With Australia scheduled to tour Sri Lanka for a two-match Test series in early January, Maxwell had expressed interest in playing Tests on the tour.
A couple of weeks ago, Maxwell said that he wanted to be part of the red-ball team on that tour of Sri Lanka and that his past success in the subcontinent helped his case.
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Maxwell, 36, suffered a hamstring injury on the field during the Pakistan series, affecting his plans to feature in a pair of Sheffield Shield matches for Victoria ahead of the Big Bash League season. in mid-December.
“The week before [to the Sri Lankan Tests in 2022] “It’s probably the most fun I’ve had in practice and training, dealing with different conditions, coming up with different strategies and trying to implement them against your own teammates,” Maxwell told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“My tactics will be exactly the same as I have played in Tests in the past, backing my strengths and trying to have a really strong defense and backing up the scoring options around that,” Maxwell said.
Maxwell came close to being selected for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in India last year, but a freak accident at a friend’s birthday party sidelined those plans. With another tour of the subcontinent on the horizon, one that is crucial to Australia’s World Test Championship finals ambitions, Maxwell is hopeful of another comeback with his power on the ball an added advantage.
David Warner criticizes Glenn Maxwell for his Test cricket ambitions
However, his former teammate David Warner was quick to shut down Maxwell, questioning his ambitions to play Tests for Australia with little red-ball cricket behind him.
“If you don’t get picked for your Shield team, why do you deserve it? You have to really want it, want to play four-day cricket,” David Warner said on Code Sports about the possibility of Glenn Maxwell being selected.
Maxwell has played 69 first-class games, scoring 4147 runs at an average just under 40. He has seven hundred 24 fifties and one of the tons came in a Test match on the subcontinent, in India, seven years ago.
He has so far not featured in Shield games in the 2024-25 season for Victoria and injury during the Pakistan series dampened his hopes. His last first-class appearance was in a county game in July 2023 for Warwickshire, where he made 81 off 67 balls in the first innings from number 6.
He played one Shield match in 2023 for Victoria, making 5 and 0, but his previous appearance dates back to 2019.
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