Glenn Maxwell takes a “mental and physical” vacation in the 2024 IPL

After his underwhelming batting performance in the IPL 2024, Glenn Maxwell, an all-rounder for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, made the decision to take a “mental and physical” vacation. Maxwell’s first excuse for missing the IPL 2024 match at M Chinnaswamy Stadium against Sunrisers Hyderabad was a finger ailment. This is the injury he got during the Mumbai Indians game.

“It was not too difficult to decide. During the news conference after the game against the Mumbai Indians, Maxwell said, “I went to Faf and the coaches and said it was probably time we tried someone else (in his place).”

It’s really a fantastic idea for me to take a little mental and physical break and take care of my body. He said, “Hopefully, I can get back into a stable mental and physical state where I can make a difference if I’m asked to step in during the tournament.

The veteran has already chosen to withdraw from the game. He had said in 2019 that he needed to take a vacation from the game since he was physically and psychologically exhausted. He returned a few of months later.

Maxwell is yet to perform well with the willow in the IPL 2024. He has only managed to score 32 runs with a 5.33 average and 94 strikeout % in six games.

Of those 32 runs, 28 came from a match against the Kolkata Knight Riders, with two mishandled catches playing a major role. “I know this because I’ve been there before—you may keep playing and dig yourself even deeper into a hole. After the power play, which has been my area of strength for the last two seasons, we have had a significant deficit.

“I felt like I wasn’t contributing 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,” Maxwell said with candor.
But the powerful Australian still wanted to come back and have an effect on the competition later on.

“This place has excellent management. Before this tournament, I don’t believe I’ve played cricket in a better six months.”That’s why it’s annoying when things work out this way. However, he said, “There’s no reason I can’t finish the tournament well if I do get another opportunity if I can get my body and mind right.”

He scored 552 runs in 17 T20I matches starting in November, thus the abrupt decline in his form was unexpected.

However, the Victorian’s luck took a turn for the worst as he opened the IPL 2024 with a first-ball duck against Chennai Super Kings in an away game.

“T20 cricket is a very erratic sport. I even ran one to the keeper off the center of the bat in the first game. I saw a scoring chance and picked up the length, but I opened my face a little too much.

“You get a boundary when you are doing well and that reaches beyond the hands of the wicketkeeper. You are gone for the tournament and you are 4 off 1,” he said.

Most likely, I haven’t managed to escape. I think I made quite decent judgments (for shot selection) in the first several games. However, I was figuring out how to leave.

“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 said.

Maxwell, who played for the Punjab Kings in the IPL 2020, went through a similar dry spell. The Australian managed only 108 runs from 11 games in that season and did not smash a single six.

Maxwell did not, however, make any comparisons between the two seasons. “At the time, I was bowling extremely well. In actuality, I was more of a spinner. We had the two top run scorers at the time, KL (Rahul) and Mayank (Agarwal).

Thus, hardly many balls remained in the game (for him). I couldn’t catch the flow of the contest. I thus told the Punjab management that we might replace me with an international bowler.

“But we didn’t have an off-spinner, so, I sort of played as an overseas off-spinner who could bat a little bit,” he said.