Lehmann praises, challenges Maxwell

Coach Darren Lehmann says allrounder Glenn Maxwell faces a challenge to keep his spot in the XI for Australia's next Test assignment.

Maxwell enjoyed a breakout tour of India, scoring his maiden Test century in Ranchi and he was the tourists' top-scorer with 45 in the second innings in Dharamsala this week.

It was a tour to silence his critics as he put away the expansive strokeplay of his white-ball game and ground out big runs when his team required them.

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He was also a firecracker in the field, launching himself into an emphatic direct-hit run out on the final morning of the fourth Test to remove India dangerman Cheteshwar Pujara. A second direct hit later in the morning saw the KL Rahul sneak home by centimetres, and his athletic intervention on the boundary to save a run in Ranchi put skipper Virat Kohli on strike and led to his dismissal a short time later.

Maxwell also looms as a key component of Australia's tilt at the Champions Trophy in England in June, but his chances to impress again in red-ball cricket over the coming months will be limited.

A proposed two-Test tour of Bangladesh later this year is yet to be locked in, with the blockbuster five-match Ashes series in 2017-18 Australia's next confirmed Test assignment.

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The late November start at the Gabba means there will be three rounds of Sheffield Shield cricket to be played before the Ashes. However, a planned ODI tour of India around the same time could see Maxwell – and several other of Australia's Test stars – playing white-ball cricket on the subcontinent in preparation for the England series.

That same lead-in worked a treat in the 2013-14 Ashes, with Mitchell Johnson refining the pace and short-pitched hostility on the Indian ODI tour before unleashing it on the unwary English.

But a seam-bowling allrounder has been par for the course in Australia's Test XI in home conditions of late and, with Maxwell's off-spinners sparsely used in India, it leaves selectors with a conundrum over how to balance the Test XI.

Australia Bupa Support Team head coach Darren Lehmann praised Maxwell's impact but said the pressure was on the Victorian to make an irresistible case to hold onto the No.6 spot for the Ashes.

"In the top six you still want to make it as a batsman," said Lehmann.

"Obviously Mitch Marsh is more of a bowling option and Glenn more the batting option.

"I'm pleased for him to get the hundred and the challenge now is obviously for him to keep his spot and play well."

Given Australia's recent trend of selecting a fifth-bowling option in home Tests, former skipper Michael Clarke believes Maxwell's position is vulnerable.

"Conditions will dictate which way they go when they get back to Australia," Clarke said last week in a live chat on his Facebook page, adding that Maxwell's bowling was "underrated".

"Will they want the fourth fast-bowling option as the allrounder, or will they stay with Glenn Maxwell?"Especially if Steve Smith is not bowling Maxi, then he becomes a legitimate batsman so he's got to be making a lot of runs to stay in the team.

"And I think this current Australian team likes to have an allrounder so I think when they get back from India (to Australia), I think they'll go back to three fast bowlers, an allrounder at No.6 with the one spinner in Nathan Lyon.

"But time will tell. If Glenn Maxwell keeps making runs, they have to keep picking him and I thought he was fantastic (in Ranchi)."

With the successful return of Pat Cummins to the Test side – labelled a "superstar" by Lehmann – and the continued hot form of James Pattinson at domestic level, the option of playing that duo alongside Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood remains viable for Australia.

An all-out pace attack would favour a spin-bowling allrounder in the top six, but the Aussies would be reluctant to drop off-spinner Nathan Lyon following his superb series in India.

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The pressure to hold his spot is not lost on Maxwell himself, as he acknowledged in the afterglow of his Test ton.

"I'll try and keep both sides of my game (batting and bowling) as much as I can," Maxwell said.

"The way Steve (Smith)'s game has gone and with the captaincy, he's solely focused on being a batsman in the team (and not on his leg-spin bowling).

"But if I'm going to be playing the role that I played this Test at No.6, I have to be giving something else in the team.

"You can't get by being a fielder and a batsman. You need the extra string to your bow when you're at No.6."