Maxwell says rubbing shoulders with top cricketers such as Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers at the IPL is the ‘greatest learning experience a player could ask for’.
Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell says the Indian Premier League (IPL) has been so good to him that he will play in the lucrative T20 cricket competition until he “can’t walk any more”.
The IPL has been the perfect platform to showcase Maxwell’s explosive batting and the 35-year-old is one of the four foreign recruits Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have retained for next season.
After making his debut in the competition with Delhi Daredevils in 2012, Maxwell commanded the top price at the players’ auction the following year, with Mumbai Indians shelling out $1m for his services.
After a three-year stint in Punjab Kings, he returned to Delhi for one more season before making the switch to Bangalore, where his destructive batting has made him a fan favourite.
“The IPL will probably be the last tournament I ever play, as I will play the IPL until I can’t walk any more,” Maxwell told reporters on Wednesday.
“I was talking about how good the IPL has been to me throughout my career – the people I’ve met, the coaches I have played under, the international players that you get to rub shoulders with …
“You’re rubbing shoulders with AB [de Villiers] and Virat [Kohli] for two months, talking to them while watching other games,” he said referring to the stalwarts he shared the Bangalore dressing room with.
“It’s just the greatest learning experience that any player could ask for.”
Maxwell’s happy hunting ground
Playing in India obviously suits Maxwell – he smashed his only Test hundred there in 2017 and helped Australia win the ICC Cricket World Cup title last month.
Playing against his good friend and RCB teammate Kohli, Maxwell took the crucial wicket of India captain Rohit Sharma in the final at Ahmedabad as Australia dismissed India for 240 runs.
Earlier, Maxwell etched his name in history books with the highest-ever one-day international (ODI) score by an Australian batter when he scored 201 runs not out in the group-stage match against Afghanistan when his team was staring in the face of defeat. They were seven wickets down for 91 runs when Maxwell put together a 202-run partnership with his captain Pat Cummins that took Australia over the line.
Hobbling and grimacing with pain from the cramps in his entire body during the match in Mumbai, Maxwell pulled off a scarcely believable feat as he also broke the record for the highest score, and the only double hundred, in an ODI run chase.
Australia will hope for a telling contribution from Maxwell in the T20 World Cup in West Indies and the United States next year, and the Victorian said playing in the IPL before the showpiece event could prove invaluable.
“Hopefully, a lot of our Australian players can get over to the IPL and get to work in slightly similar conditions to the West Indies, where it is a little bit drier, it will spin,” Maxwell said.
Maxwell will lead Melbourne Stars in Thursday’s Big Bash League opener against Brisbane at the Gabba.
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