He’s been a regular member of that Australian middle-order for the greater part of the last decade now, constantly tasked with either rescuing the team from a tough situation or upping the ante after a good start. It is a role that Glenn Maxwell has performed with great poise and consistency, often to devastating consequences for the opposition, as learnt by England and India in the past few months.

In an interview with Cricbuzz, the seasoned Glenn Maxwell opened up a bit on what goes on in his head while playing that role of the finisher, tasked with counter attacking the bowlers.

“Being a middle-order player for most of my career, I suppose you have to adapt to that aggressive style of play. I certainly like to entertain and play that aggressive brand of cricket,” explained Maxwell in that interview.

“You have to try and take out the thoughts of risk from your mind, and try to play the shots that are either best for the field or the ball that you are facing. For example, facing a right arm off-spinner as a right hander, the percentages are a lot more in my favour to hit him with the spin over long on, compared to facing a left-arm off-spinner,” added the all-rounder.

The 32-year-old confessed that his approach to attacking the opposition wasn’t based merely on brute force, but is an amalgamation of his intuitive abilities and reading the field positions. “I’m 100% aware of the field, I try to gather as much information as I can before every ball is bowled.

“One of my biggest advantages on the field is the ability to read the game and read the opposition. If you can negate Plan A or Plan B, you find that you can score really quickly and heavily against some teams,” explained Maxwell.

He also revealed in the same interview that he often studies his own batting after games, tries to understand his frailties and pays keen attention to different franchise based tournaments around the world to stay ahead of the curve.

Every ball is a boundary ball

“I think every ball you need to try and have the intent to hit a boundary,” explained Maxwell when quizzed about his T20 mantra. “You’ve always got a boundary option every ball, but if it is not quite there you need to reign it back. You can do that for most overs unless the situation becomes one where you need multiple boundaries in an over, that’s when you try and premeditate and try and go a bit harder.”

“I’ve generally got a couple of shots for each ball, depending on how I feel against different bowlers. Sometimes I might think of cutting off the stumps, other days it’ll be a reverse sweep,” added the dynamic all-rounder.

Maxwell certainly augmented that reputation of being a 360 degree player in the recently concluded series against India, scoring often with his trademark switch hits and scoops. Despite an underwhelming 2020 Dream11 Indian Premier League, he managed to turn the tide back in International colours, showing the way forward for many budding cricketers on how to excel in the shortest format of the game.