With David Warner‘s Test retirement nearing, the race to replace him is heating up with speculations being rife. Former Australian wicket-keeper batter Adam Gilchrist, a pioneer in the field of attacking openers in cricket, has zeroed in on Glenn Maxwell as Usman Khawaja’s new opening partner post Sydney Test next year.
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Speaking on the latest episode of Club Prairie Fire Podcast, Gilchrist responded to former England captain Michael Vaughan‘s query around fulfilling Warner’s shoes. In Marnus Labushcagne, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris and Cameron Bancroft, Vaughan provided a host of options to Gilchrist before shortlisting Green as his pick in an attacking “smart cricket” era of Bazball.
While Green’s penchant for fearless batting appears to have impressed Vaughan, Gilchrist brought Maxwell into the mix to counter Vaughan despite not believing that Australia care for Bazball.
“G Maxwell, straight in. That would elevate it to a different level. That’d be like, ‘I see you Bazball, and I’m giving you Maxball’,” Gilchrist said on Club Prairie Fire Podcast.
Even Though Maxball Is Exciting, Glenn Maxwell Isn’t A Specialist Opener
Gilchrist, who played almost half of his 396-match international career under the legendary Ricky Ponting, resonated with him by vouching for Maxwell’s Test comeback after more than six years.
However, even though the prospect of Maxball sounds exciting, Maxwell is far from a specialist opener in any format, let alone Tests. For the unversed, the right-handed batter has opened the batting five times out of 233 innings at the highest level across formats.
Interestingly enough, the second of those five occasions had come in his second Test. Being considered as a potential replacement of Warner by Gilchrist, Maxwell was astonishingly asked to open the innings alongside Warner in his third Test innings against India in Delhi over a decade ago.
Although he couldn’t deliver in his only Test opportunity as an opener, Maxwell had scored an unbeaten half-century and century (followed by a half-century in the next match) during his maiden opening stints in ODIs and T20Is respectively.
Assuming it happens, Maxwell’s unconventional promotion will do a great amount of injustice to a specialist opener such as Bancroft. Having last played for Australia during Ashes 2019, Sheffield Shield 2023/24 highest run-scorer Bancroft should also consider himself unfortunate even if Labuschagne earns a promotion in the batting order against Khawaja’s guesswork.
