“Absolutely irrelevant”.
That’s how Usman Khawaja has described Glenn Maxwell’s struggles in the Indian Premier League as Australia’s long-time limited-overs talisman looks to wipe a horror tournament from his memory and return to his devastating best at the T20 World Cup.
With a proven reputation as one of the most destructive allrounders in the game, Maxwell’s struggles with the bat for Royal Challengers Bengaluru stunned the cricket world.
The veteran averaged just 5.77 from nine knocks, with 28 of his 52 runs for the tournament coming in one innings. It resulted in a stint on the sidelines while other RCB batters were preferred, with the lack of time in the middle providing a less-than-ideal lead-in to the World Cup as Maxwell joins his Australian teammates in the Caribbean.
But Aussie Test veteran Khawaja isn’t concerned, saying he was confident Maxwell could successfully flush his struggles in India and spearhead his nation’s middle order.
“The IPL’s absolutely irrelevant,” Khawaja said of Maxwell’s recent form.
“Maxy’s proven himself time and time again. Any player who’s performed over a long period of time understands that you can’t perform well every time you go out there.
“You take a few risks, particularly if you bat in the middle order, and T20 cricket’s not easy.
“But (for this tournament) if he gets one good innings, he’s away.
“It doesn’t matter what’s happened in the past. He’s not going to change his game and nor should he.
“Just keep going. He’ll find it.”
Khawaja, who is travelling across the West Indies and USA in a role as ambassador for World Cup broadcaster Prime Video, said he was expecting spin to play a significant role in the Caribbean pitches, bringing Maxwell into the game with the ball alongside Adam Zampa and potentially Ashton Agar.
Reflecting on the latest series of The Test after its release last week, Khawaja said it had been difficult to relive the trauma felt by Alex Carey in the wake of his controversial stumping of Jonny Bairstow at Lord’s in last year’s emotion-charged Ashes series.
“It’s funny – I have a lot of good memories from the first two Test matches, because we won and I scored runs in both,” Khawaja said.
“But there was a lot of drama that was going on, on and off the field.
“I felt bad for Kez (Carey). In the moment, I knew he was doing it tough. But then you watch it back again, and you’re like, ‘man, he would have found it real tough’.
“They’re probably the harder bits to watch.”
Chris Robinson travelled to Trinidad & Tobago as a guest of Prime Video, which is broadcasting the T20 World Cup.