Maxwell is struggling for runs in IPL 2024. Before Monday’s game, he had scored just 32 runs at an average of 5.33 in six innings. There was speculation that he might have been ruled out due to a thumb injury but that was not the case.
“For me, personally, it was a very easy decision,” Maxwell said after RCB’s sixth defeat in seven matches. “After the last game I went to Faf (du Plessis) and the coach and said I thought it was time we tried someone else. I’ve been in this situation before where you can keep playing and get yourself deep into the hole. It’s good to give me a little mental and physical break. I think it’s time, if I have to get in during the tournament, I can get back to a really strong mental state and a physical place where I can still make an impact.
“We had a pretty big deficit after the powerplay, which has been my area of strength for the last two seasons. I felt like I wasn’t contributing in a positive way with the bat and results and position. We find ourselves on the table, I think it’s a good time to give someone else a chance to show their goods and Hopefully someone can make that place their own.”
Coming into IPL 2024, Maxwell was in red-hot form. In 17 T20 matches since early November, he has scored 552 runs at an average of 42.46 with a strike rate of 185.85. He scored two centuries during this period.
But he started the IPL with a first-ball duck against Chennai Super Kings. Since then, he has had two more ducks and only once lasted more than five balls – against Kolkata Knight Riders, where he did so with the help of two catches where he dropped 28 runs off 19 balls.
“T20 cricket can be like that sometimes – it’s quite a fickle game,” he said. “Even if you look at the first game, I ran into the keeper from the middle of the bat. I picked up the length well, saw a chance to score, but opened up the face a bit too much. Also when you’re going, it goes glove wide, you get a boundary, you’re 4 off 1, and you Away from the tournament.
“I probably didn’t miss – it’s that simple. In the first few matches, I think I made reasonably good decisions, but I was still looking for ways to get out. It can happen in T20 cricket and it can snowball. Like that, you can go looking and try too hard and forget the fundamentals of the game. .”
In retrospect, Maxwell was asked if he wished he had played one more match. “I noticed during the Powerplay that the pitch was not as slow and two-paced as it was in the first few matches,” he said with a laugh. “And I realized it was probably a bad game to miss; it would have been nice to be out there batting.
“But like I said, I want to give myself not only a physical break but also a mental break to give myself the right to play professional cricket. I’m very proud of my performance and I’ve put in a lot of hard work. It’s been quite a struggle behind the scenes to get my body right for every game, my body is on the wrong side of 30. I think the physical and mental toll probably wore me down a bit.
“That was probably a different scenario,” Maxwell said. “What hurt me then was that I was bowling well. So I was playing more as a spinner who was used at the back end (with the bat). We had KL (Rahul) and Mayank (Agarwal). They were the two leading run scorers in the competition at that time, so there were not many balls left in the game, so I couldn’t get any rhythm in the match, few balls here and there.
“So I said the same thing to the Kings XI management at that time, we can have an overseas bowler in my place. But we didn’t have an offspinner either. So I played as a foreign offspinner. Bat a bit.
“The management here has been excellent. We are working together on taking fair ownership and the off-field leadership staff are trying to help them as much as possible. Unfortunately, the runs have not come their way. I don’t think I have had a good six months in this tournament when you are in really good form, but it is my body and It will be disappointing if I can get my mind right, there’s no reason why I can’t finish the tournament well if I get another chance.”
Hemant Brar is Deputy Editor at ESPNcricinfo