Australian skipper Aaron Finch reckons that the flamboyant all-rounder Glenn Maxwell hasn’t scored enough runs or hasn’t done anything special in order to make him bat ahead of Marcus Stoinis or Alex Carey. The statement from the skipper, which came just a few months before the World Cup, may jeopardize Maxwell’s chances of flying to England and Wales for the marquee event.
Finch’s comments came after the third ODI between Australia and South Africa which the visitors won by 40 runs and hence the three-match series 2-1. Maxwell, who scored 35 off 27 balls, came into bat with 95 runs needed from 8.4 overs in the final ODI, but could not take his team home and was dismissed in the 49th over of the innings.
The Australian skipper was clearly unhappy with the side’s dismal performance and termed the Australian team as “fairly one-dimensional side”. Finch was clearly not happy with Maxwell’s performance in particular and wants him to prove his worth as an all-rounder if he wants to be part of the ODI squad.
Talking about Maxwell further, Finch said, “If you look at Glenn’s stats recently, he probably hasn’t made as many runs as he would have liked as a pure batsman. Therefore for him to be in the side and as an all-rounder, he’s probably batting in that No.7 spot. Guys are playing reasonably well around him. ‘Maxi’ would have liked some more runs, and obviously wants to bat higher. But the reality is he’s in the side as a bit of an all-rounder but he hasn’t scored as many runs that he needed to over the last little while in one-day cricket to probably just taking up a top-four spot.”
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The all-rounder has to perform in the solitary T20 international against South Africa, that will be played on Saturday in order to save himself from getting sidelined for Australia’s international squads in the near future.
Apart from MAxwel here have been some other failures as well, as none of the key batsmen performed consistently, although number three Shaun Marsh hit a fighting 106 in the decider on Sunday. Even the big-hitting Lynn was elevated to open the batting in Hobart in a bid to get quick runs, but it failed when he was out first ball.
Acknowledging the same, Finch said, “We’re all under pressure when we lose, no doubt about that. Between the batting line-up not having got it right for a little while now there’s going to be questions asked whether it’s Maxi, Lynny, Heady, or myself or Stoin. We have to either adapt our game plan a little bit around the way the side structures up best or we slightly change our personnel to fit a style that we think can win.”
