Glenn Maxwell says “You Might As Well Not Play Me” after poor run in IPL 2020

Australia batsman Glenn Maxwell has given a fair report on his past performances in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 for the Punjab Kings, and said that there was once a time when he himself asked to be dropped from the playing XI looking at the dynamics of the side. In the 2020 season which was played in the UAE, Maxwell was able to conjure up  just 108 runs at a meagre average of 15.52. The Australian failed to hit a single six in his entire season which was the clear indication of the heavy hitter’s  ongoing bad run of form.

This year Maxwell will be playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) after being retained by the franchise in this year’s IPL mega auction. Last year, the Aussie showed his talent and skills as he played a perfect role as Virat Kohli’s and AB de Villiers’ teammate.

“That was obviously a hard time, the previous two years went very good but I struggled to get momentum throughout the tournament. 2020 season was a bit of a nightmare. Nothing really went right. T20 cricket can be hard if you’re a middle-order player. You’re not getting to play a lot of balls in the middle. You’re not getting consistency. KL and Mayank were making truckloads of runs. Pooran was smacking as well, and a lot of times I ended up facing less than an over or two,”

Maxwell said on RCB Podcast.

“You can train as much as you want but if you don’t have that in-game momentum, it makes it really hard for a player to rediscover himself. I was going to every game and felt like I haven’t batted for six months. Even though I was training every day, I had no rhythm whatsoever in the game. We had so many top-order batters playing well and we brought Gayle in and I was pushed another spot down the order. I actually went up myself and told them ‘you might as well not play me,”

Maxwell stated further.

The right-handed batsman also said that he does not have the power and ability like Andre Russell and he cannot go for the power shots right from the beginning of his innings.

“I was like, ‘I might get even fewer balls and it’s going to be tougher for me.’ I’m not like Andre Russell who can come out and hit the first ball for six. I need time. To their credit, they stuck with me because I was bowling really well and was fielding and doing a lot of work with the captain and bowlers. But batting-wise, if you don’t get the rhythm early on, it’s really hard to rediscover,”

Maxwell said about his style of play

The TATA IPL 2022 is set to begin from March 26 with Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders locking horns in the tournament opener. RCB will play their opening match on March 27 against Punjab Kings.

RCB will be looking to end their IPL title drought under a new leadership this time round in the name of captain Faf du Plessis. Virat Kohli had last year announced that he would not be leading the Bangalore team from the 2022 season onwards.