In Victoria’s Marsh Sheffield Shield victory over South Australia this week, Maxwell made a successful albeit sluggish return to professional cricket. Today, Maxwell was named to Australia’s 50-over squad for a three-match ODI series against India next month following the fourth Border-Gavaskar Test.
The 34-year-old only managed five runs in the first inning, which he followed with a second-ball duck in the second, then on day two, when fielding at slip, he took a severe knock on the wrist that required scans to see whether there was any damage.
After returning from a fractured left fibula, the great all-rounder will play for Premier club Fitzroy-Doncaster again on Saturday. He will have the opportunity to bowl there before travelling to Albury for Victoria’s next Shield match against NSW.
Mitch Marsh, who was also selected for Australia’s ODI team but is now unavailable to bowl, will represent Western Australia in the Marsh One-Day Cup.
Maxwell said he acquired a lot of confidence that his body could manage the “greater intensity running” across the three days for Victoria as he progresses towards 100 percent recovery in a few weeks. Maxwell returned via the four-day format owing to the lesser effort compared to a 50-over match.
The right-hander claimed that this week’s biggest obstacle was the mental effort needed in a game as opposed to practising.
“During the Shield game, probably mentally batting in that position I wasn’t quite there,” Maxwell said today.
“In the nets you can do all the hard work but to get that mental application back in the game is obviously a different thing.
“That’s probably something I’m working on over the next few games … to try and get a few more hits out there and build up that match intensity.
“Having not played for three-and-a-half months, I made a conscious decision to make sure I filled up my calendar with cricket to lead into that World Cup of the back end of the year.
“We’ve got the one-day series which is going to be a big series especially with the World Cup in India and will be a good opportunity for us to try and work out some things and get our game plan ready … as well as having the IPL straight after it.”