He was released by RCB and Punjab Kings decided to bring Maxwell back to the team by picking him up for ₹4.2 Crore in the mega auction. Like last year’s IPL, the Australian all-rounder came to this edition of IPL on the back of good form, but his luck soon deserted him as soon as the tournament began.
Maxwell scored only 41 runs in six matches at an average of 8.20. His struggles against spin have never been so prominent.
Pujara said Maxwell’s batting approach gives the feeling that he takes things causally. “The way he bats hasn’t changed much,” Pujara said. “He hasn’t changed the way he has approached the IPL. There have been times where he’s been a little casual. He’s the same what he was maybe eight-ten years ago. I’m a little critical, but there are times where as a player you need to wake up,” Pujara said on ESPNCricinfo T20 Time Out.
The out-of-favour India Test stalwart said it’s time Maxwell pulls up socks and starts performing as the day is not far when the patience of PBKS management would run out
“You need to realise you’re getting an opportunity to play and be part of a franchise where things are at stake. And there are times a player can get casual, they’re not worried about what’s happening. I’m sure he wants to perform but when you’re not performing there’s a fine line of being causal and just trying to pull up your socks and trying to perform. He has to find that balance, if there was any other player he would’ve been out of the XI, but because he’s Maxwell he’s getting that opportunity,” Pujara added.
‘Maxwell had cushion of Kohl;i and Faf in RCB’: Bangar
Former RCB coach Bangar, who has seen Maxwell from close quarters, said his shortcomings were not as prominent in RCB because all the focus was on Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis.
“It’s a hard one, to decipher how Maxwell operates, his run of consistency or otherwise,” Bangar said. “Those three years at RCB, he had a couple of batters around him who took the attention away from him. There was Virat [Kohli], Faf du Plessis – he wasn’t really the main guy the team looked up to for miracles. He was expected to do those impactful performances, and he was delivering quite well. Here in a new role [at PBKS], he’s batting slightly lower down the order as well, for me they’re still looking at him as a primary overseas batter, which wasn’t the case with RCB.”
The former India all-rounder highlighted that Maxwell has been slightly confused in the crease in this IPL. “For the first two-three games, we saw a different Maxwell, he was trying to take the bowling on from ball one,” Bangar said. “In the last two innings, he was happy to spend some time in the middle. Till the time he got out to Varun [Chakravathy’s] googly [in the previous game against KKR], he was giving himself time, played good cricketing shots. He played a back foot drive past point. If he’d started with this approach, the pressure wouldn’t have been so much. Now it’s this way or that. I don’t think Punjab will be patient to stick with him if they were to drop a couple of games, by which time the season would be on the line.”
PBKS would be hoping Maxwell returns to form in their IPL match against RCB on Friday.
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