‘Still got some really good cricket in me’: Glenn Maxwell

Australia named a 15-man squad on Tuesday, 11 September, for the two-Test series in the United Arab Emirates, including five uncapped players. With Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft serving bans, there is a dearth of senior batsmen in Australia, something which was expected to work in Maxwell’s favour as far as selection was concerned. However, the selectors left him out, suggesting he needed to score big hundreds in first-class cricket. "(Trevor Hohns, the chairman of selectors, explained) the fact that my numbers at Test level don't stand up over the last few years when I've been included," Maxwell told SEN Radio. “Now I just need to make more runs. Hopefully I can pile on enough runs this summer to keep pushing my case forward. I had a pretty good year last year, so now I've just got to have another good year this year and hope selections go my way at some stage.” Maxwell didn’t play any cricket in the lead-up to the squads being announced as he was under the impression Cricket Australia wanted him to rest ahead of Australia A’s tour of India, and then ahead of the Tests against Pakistan. Eventually, it seemed to count against him. “I suppose the disappointment from my side is I didn't get an opportunity to play any cricket over the last couple of months," he said. “I had a few offers to play county cricket in England and they were initially knocked back with an opportunity to go and play in India in the A series. To get told not to play in the A series and have a rest, and I was understanding of that and their reasoning behind that ... I was hoping that was a positive note to go to Dubai (to play Pakistan). But obviously that wasn't the case.” Despite all that, Maxwell remained positive on his chances of playing, and impressing, in Tests in future. “I feel like I've still got some really good cricket years ahead of me,” he said. “If I continue to play the way I have been in the last 12 months, the selections will eventually go my way. I feel like I'm getting better and better. Hopefully this is another year where I can prove people wrong and put a lot of runs on the board.”