Australian star Glenn Maxwell has expressed his desire to play some part in the upcoming ODI series against India after re-aggravation of his left ankle injury. The 34-year-old player was dropped from the ongoing T20 series against South Africa for this reason, as a result of which he had to return home from South Africa. Maxwell still has a metal plate in her left leg after fracturing it in a freak accident last November. His ankle injury was aggravated during Australia’s first training session in Durban.
Speaking at the BBL Overseas Draft, the Australian star admitted that he wanted to take part in the India series but credited the selectors and support staff for not putting any extra pressure on him.
Glenn Maxwell said:
“I still want to play some part of that India series. But I’m not feeling any pressure on it. The selectors and the staff have been brilliant with me as well. They don’t want to put too much pressure on me to sort of set that date because they know they’ve got a bit of extra time before the World Cup,”
“So instead of rushing it and probably putting myself a week or two behind, being able to give myself extra time and make sure we get through the whole tournament,” he added.
Despite playing in the IPL and T20 Blast since returning from injury in February, Glenn Maxwell has played only one ODI against India this year.
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“Trying To Manage And Balance Them Both” – Glenn Maxwell
Glenn Maxwell was already believed to have missed the ODI leg of the South African tour due to the birth of his first child. However, welcoming a baby while recovering from an injury makes balancing them quite a difficult task.
“It’s going to be a busy fortnight,” Maxwell continued. “I suppose I’m trying to manage my program and I’ll sit down with the strength conditioning crew tomorrow and nut out of a genuine plan but obviously there’s some distractions as well.”
“I’m trying to manage obviously a pretty special time in my life with a pretty big time in my career, trying to manage those two and work out the balance,” he added.
The 34-year-old’s ankle problem flared up again during training in South Africa south afternoon.
“I don’t think I could have predicted how sore I was going to be once I got to South Africa,” Maxwell added. “But it was one of those things. Even when I went to train that day, I still felt fine. There was nothing wrong. Something just got impinged.”
“I think one of the tendons around my ankle was a little bit inflamed, there’s a bit of swelling, so it kept on catching which meant it just gave me a bit of pain,” Maxwell concluded.
Glenn Maxwell has been one of the biggest match-winners for Australia in the 50-over format, averaging nearly 34 with a strike rate of 124.82 after 128 matches. He also played an integral role in helping the Australian team win their fifth ODI World Cup in 2015 and their first T20I title in 2021.
Australia will play five ODIs against South Africa before traveling to India for another three ODIs against the hosts before the showpiece event. They will play the first match of the World Cup against India on 8 October in Chennai.
