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Doubt turns to delight as Maxwell thrives

Maxwell addresses doubts he had over his spot for World Cup, his preparation for England and impact of coach Justin Langer

Glenn Maxwell says his early-season stint with Lancashire will leave him ready to hit the ground running in the World Cup but admitted he had doubted if he would ever make it to the 50-over tournament. 

Maxwell lines up for Lancashire at Old Trafford in the county's one-day match against Northamptonshire on Wednesday in the UK and will play another two matches for the county before arriving back in Brisbane in early May for a week-long training camp. 

Before Australia's most recent ODI series – against Pakistan in late March – Maxwell had hit just one fifty in his past 22 innings dating back to January 2017. 

In that time, he had been demoted down to bat at No.7 and – in January 2018 – had been dropped from the ODI side altogether with his training methods questioned. 

The shoots of recovery began in the KFC BBL where he guided the Melbourne Stars into the final, and continued into India in March, where he struck two match-winning knocks in T20 matches, including an unbeaten 113 in Bengaluru. 

Maxwell smashes extraordinary ton

Having inspired Australia to their first T20 series win in India, he played key knocks in Hyderabad and Ranchi with scores of 40 and 47 as Australia recovered from 0-2 to win the five-match ODI series 3-2.

That form carried to Dubai for the ODIs against Pakistan, where he finished the series with scores of 71, 98 and 70, cementing him the World Cup squad and leaving him full of confidence for the coming tournament. 

Still, for Maxwell, getting official word he had been picked in Australia's World Cup squad brought "a sense of relief".

"I've definitely gone through stages over the last 12 months where I've doubted if I might even have been there," Maxwell told Gerard Whateley on SEN radio.

"To be actually finally named you look back and feel proud of all the work you've put in. 

"To perform the way I did in India and Dubai gave me a lot of confidence going forward that I was still good enough to dominate and do really well at this level. 

"That's what gives me confidence for this World Cup: I'm coming in in good international form and there's a bit of trust within the team to play my role. 

"I feel like I've got a certain role now which is a nice feeling as well."

Maxwell paid tribute to the influence of coach Justin Langer who, now nearly 12 months into his role as Australia's head coach, had laid the groundwork for the side to flourish.

Incredible! Maxwell slams 33-ball 70

"The way he went about getting everyone back together from the Big Bash, we were able to establish what we wanted to do as a team really quickly and focus really quickly coming into that series," Maxwell said. 

"We started the series really well and ... it just built a lot of belief and guys were able to ride on that, get better and better with each training session and keep pushing each other, which has been a key to our success over the past few months.

"Once I got to the competitive nature of our training set-up and being allowed to train the way I like to and prepare the way I wanted to, (it) really helped me going into those first two T20s. 

"That trust in my preparation, I was able to keep that going into the one-dayers and felt really confident with what I was doing to get ready for games. 

"A lot of guys were taking ownership of their preparation and that trust in that led to that success in the one-day series."

Ponting and Maxwell forearm hair-off

Maxwell said it was a "more calm and relaxed" team dynamic where players were "really looking out for each other more on tour" that created a positive atmosphere. 

"There wasn't any egos around the team, just making sure we were playing together and for each other and the results spoke for themselves," Maxwell said. 

The Victorian said his next steps were to build on that end to the Pakistan series, with his time in Lancashire paying dividends.

"For me it's continuing what I did so well at back end of that Pakistan series – having a consistent platform and consistent basis to work my game on," Maxwell told SEN.

"I practiced extremely well, was thorough in my preparation and was able to go out there with a really clear mind and execute my skills the way I wanted to. 

"That's the consistency they (Australia's selectors) want to see in this World Cup and what I'm working on over here. 

"I'm going to need a slightly different technique to what I needed in Dubai but that's something I'm working on over here and was the whole reason I wanted to come over, to get myself prepared for the World Cup and make sure I'm not leaving any stone unturned."

2019 World Cup

Australia's squad: Aaron Finch (c), Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey (wk), Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pat Cummins, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa

May 25: (warm-up) England v Australia, Southampton

May 27: (warm-up) Australia v Sri Lanka, Southampton

June 1: Afghanistan v Australia, Bristol (D/N)

June 6: Australia v West Indies, Trent Bridge

June 9: India v Australia, The Oval

June 12: Australia v Pakistan, Taunton

June 15: Sri Lanka v Australia, The Oval

June 20: Australia v Bangladesh, Trent Bridge

June 25: England v Australia, Lord's

June 29: New Zealand v Australia, Lord's (D/N)

July 6: Australia v South Africa, Old Trafford (D/N)

July 9: Semi-Final 1, Old Trafford

July 11: Semi-Final 2, Edgbaston

July 14: Final, Lord's

For a full list of all World Cup fixtures, click HERE