Maxwell relives his ‘horror’ like experience from IPL 2020 with Punjab Kings

Glenn Maxwell was one of three players retained by the Royal Challengers Bangalore ahead of the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League (the other two being Virat Kohli and Mohammed Siraj). The Australian great made a successful comeback in the tournament’s last season, hitting six fifties for a total of 513, the most by an RCB player in 2021. Maxwell, on the other hand, had a drastically different season in 2020 with the Punjab Kings (then named Kings XI Punjab). Maxwell, who batted primarily in the middle and lower middle orders for the team, only scored 108 runs in 13 appearances and failed to hit a six in the tournament.

“The previous year (2020) was a disaster. If you’re a middle-order player in T20, it can be difficult. There aren’t many balls in the middle, and there isn’t much consistency. Truckloads of runs were being made by KL and Mayank. Nicky Pooran was also smacking. As a result, I frequently faced less than an over or two. It doesn’t take much to gain momentum, and it was extremely difficult to regain at any point during the tournament. I was going to every game and it felt like it had been six months since I had batted. Despite the fact that I was training every day. It was probably due to the fact that there were so many high orders playing, and then we brought Gayle in, and I was moved down the order. As a result, I had even fewer balls to play with. It was more difficult. And I was like, ‘You might as well not play me,’ because I’m not Andre Russell, who can hit the first pitch for six. I require some time,” said Maxwell.

Only 108 runs were scored by Maxwell in 13 matches in IPL 2020, and that too without hitting a six.