Maxwell keeps T20I door ajar after 'open and fluid' discussions

Glenn Maxwell's international playing future remains clouded as the star allrounder kept the door ajar on playing for Australia again despite expressing only lukewarm hope he can make the 2028 Olympics or World Cup.

Maxwell insisted there was an element of bad luck to Australia's rotten T20 World Cup campaign which marked their third straight failure to make the tournament's semi-finals.

The 37-year-old was the oldest member of the squad that dropped games to Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka. He has also been in the midst of a slump that has seen him average 15.56 and strike at 114 in T20s since returning from an arm injury in November.

Maxwell will turn 40 between the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics (which will see cricket return to the program for the first time since 1900) and the ensuing ICC T20 World Cup later that year (to be hosted by Australia).

Having retired from ODIs last year and with his red-ball career seemingly over as well, Maxwell appears likely to lose his Cricket Australia deal for 2026-27 given the men's side play just eight T20Is during that contracting period.

But he is not retiring from T20 internationals yet.

"Not making a decision around my future was probably based more on what's to come over the next 12 months," he told reporters at the MCG as part of a cross-sport promotion also featuring Alpine team Formula One drivers.

"There's not a whole lot of T20 cricket (in 26-27), so there's probably no need to make any sort of formal announcements and just see how my body's going and see how I'm travelling.

"If there's opportunities to play in the future, hopefully I'm fit and firing."

Asked about his intentions to play in Australia's 2028 T20 tournaments, he added: "If I'm fit and firing, hopefully, but I'm not setting any dates."

Australia are set to play three T20Is in Bangladesh in June this year before hosting England for five T20Is in November.

Their schedule is instead heavily tilted towards Tests, while the side's major white-ball focus over the next 18 months will shift to 50-over cricket given the upcoming ODI World Cup in southern Africa in 2027.

Maxwell will have his hands full playing in T20 leagues abroad before the KFC BBL season begins. He will return to the USA for Major League Cricket (which looks set to overlap with the Bangladesh tour) either side of stints in the Pakistan Super League and the new European T20 Premier League, in which he co-owns the Belfast-based Irish Wolves.

The Victorian has had conversations with Australia's management about his ongoing availability, but was tight-lipped about what has been decided.

"We've had some discussions about what the next little bit looks like, and we'll continue to have really open and fluid discussions going forward," Maxwell said.

"They're behind-closed-door discussions with the selectors that I've had pretty consistently over the last few years.

"I had them around the one-day stuff as well post the 2023 World Cup, like you have with any series when you're post-30 (years old) and you're sort of heading towards that direction.

"So I'll be open and fluid with them, and they're the same with me."

Maxwell believes his own performances had improved after a below-par BBL with Melbourne Stars. "I probably more judge it on how I'm running around the field and how I'm feeling, more so than any statistics regarding wickets and runs," he said.

"I just felt like I was able to get through games a lot easier, felt like I was playing my role as well as I could and felt like I still had plenty to offer."

Australia's T20 struggles in Sri Lanka, where their power-packed middle-order failed to fire after a dominant run in bilateral series through 2025, were partially down to poor timing, Maxwell stressed.

Tim David and Nathan Ellis both came into the tournament nursing injuries, while Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins were both late omissions. Mitchell Starc also retired from T20Is months before the event, exposing Australia's bowling depth.

The kicker was a groin injury to captain Mitch Marsh leading into their tournament opener against Ireland.

"It felt like we had such a good lead-in over the last 18 months," said Maxwell. "We built a really good feeling around the around the group and it was a shame that we didn't get the results that we felt like we were building towards.

"Fair to say we didn't have a whole lot of luck in leading in – having a couple of injuries to key players, and probably having limited build up for a few of those guys, then losing the captain on the eve of the first game probably changed the way we were going to set up.

"It can happen in a short tournament like that where you need all the things to go right and we probably had a few things that went wrong. In the subcontinent, that probably gets heightened and exposed more so than other places."