Injury hits Maxwell’s Shield hopes, leaves race for BBL

Glenn Maxwell‘s hopes of making a return to first-class cricket before Australia’s tour of Sri Lanka have been scuppered by the hamstring injury he picked up against Pakistan in Hobart. Maxwell faces up to a month on the sidelines, which would rule him out of either of Victoria’s next two Sheffield Shield matches and leave a tight timeframe to be fit for the start of the BBL with Melbourne Stars.

Maxwell limped off during Pakistan’s innings on Monday evening and has been diagnosed with a grade two hamstring injury. He had also been in the frame for the Prime Minister’s XI for the two-day pink-ball match against India in Canberra between the first and second Tests alongside potentially a Shield outing in one of Victoria’s two upcoming matches against Queensland.

Although missing those matches is not terminal to Maxwell’s hopes of returning to Test cricket in Sri Lanka they had been viewed as an opportunity to further prove he can withstand the rigours of four-day cricket following his badly broken leg in 2022. Last month he played his first red-ball game in over a year when he featured for Victoria’s Second XI against Queensland and was encouraged by a long stint in the field.

Maxwell was left bitterly disappointed when he narrowly missed playing against Sri Lanka on the 2022 tour and adding to his seven caps remains a major ambition before his career finishes after he last featured in 2017.

“I think if I gave up on that Test dream now, I don’t think I’d be doing justice to that younger Glenn Maxwell who was dying to put on the baggy green when he was a kid,” Maxwell told ESPNcricinfo last month. “And I think while there’s still a glimmer of hope, I’ll keep going for it.”

Former Australia captain Aaron Finch does not believe the latest injury will change whether Maxwell is selected for Sri Lanka or not.

“Don’t think it makes any difference,” Finch told ESPN’s Around The Wicket. “The very little red-ball cricket Maxi’s played over the last probably five years, if they want to pick him, they’ll pick him regardless, and it’s not about if he goes and gets runs in Shield cricket. I don’t think that comes into it at all because it’s the skillset he has got – he’s very good against spin, he’s very versatile, [and] his offspin is better than part-time.”

Chair of selectors George Bailey has previously said they will make specialist picks for Sri Lanka, and that performances in Shield cricket would not be the overriding factor given the vast differences in the conditions, while head coach Andrew McDonald confirmed Maxwell was firmly in the mix.

“The ability to play on that horizontal plane sweeping and reverse sweeping, I think will be a critical skill if the conditions are extreme,” McDonald said. “Does he [Maxwell] fit that profile? 100 percent he fits that profile.

“The big challenge for Maxi is clearly body and whether he can get through Test cricket, and what that may look like on the back of BBL. With Maxi, it’s he plays, see how he pulls up and then make the next decision on the back of that injury that he had.”

The first Test in Sri Lanka starts on January 29 with Australia expected to have a 10-day lead up meaning those selected for the tour will miss the BBL finals and potentially the late regular-season games.

Melbourne Stars’ first BBL match is the opening game of the tournament against Perth Scorchers on December 15.