Maxwell: Scrapped tour lead to poor form

Cricket365
December 9, 2015

Australia allrounder Glenn Maxwell admits the cancellation of the Aussies' Test tour to Bangladesh in September contributed to his slow start to the domestic season.

The Aussies were due to play the Tigers in two Tests away from home but the tour was scrapped after the Australian government issued a warning to Cricket Australia about security fears in the Asian country.

After a good showing in the ODI series in England, Maxwell was chosen in squad for the longest format with the Aussies looking to play two spinners on the slow subcontinent pitches.

When the tour was canceled, there were no domestic games before the Test squad for the New Zealand series was chosen and Maxwell found himself out of the squad.

The right-arm offspiner and big-hitting batsman then had an unconvincing start to the season with his state side Victoria, only managing 78 runs at 15.6 in the one-day games but he has started to show good form in the recent Sheffield Shield matches.

Maxwell told Fairfax: "(The Bangladesh postponement) probably affected me more mentally than anything else. I was pretty upset I was missing out on an opportunity to play for my country and really put a good step forward.

"After playing so well in the one-dayers in England I was really looking forward to taking that into the Tests, to have that series ripped away from me and the squad to change when we got back to Australia was pretty upsetting.

"It probably affected me too much, because it affected the way I played the game and the way I went about it. It didn't reflect too well on myself … and it showed in my results as well.

"Since the Shield stuff has started I've tried to put that all behind me … almost start from the bottom rung and work my way back up."