Maxwell key in World Cup shuffle

Melbourne Stars captain Glenn Maxwell believes Australia's revamped ODI batting group are set to be handed specific roles in the upcoming series against India, with one eye very much on the World Cup in June.

Maxwell was highly impressive in compiling a composed 41 not out to guide the Stars to a comfortable win over Sydney Thunder on the Gold Coast on Saturday night, performing the finishing role from No.4.

With Australia's 50-over side under new coach Justin Langer however, the right-hander has batted at six on five occasions, and seven in his last outing, against South Africa in November, for a series of scores reading 62, 31, 19, 11, 15 and 35.

"They'll come up with their order, that they want me to play a role in," Maxwell said post-match. "I think they'll be pretty certain roles this time.

"There's been a lot of talk about what roles guys are going to be playing come World Cup time, and I think it's probably going to be the time that they start to really nut that out, and give guys certain roles, and try to lead into that now.

"I've been just batting as well as I can and trying to play my role for this team. I've always said whatever team I go into that I just try and play the role they ask me to, and being captain (of the Stars) I get to give myself my own role, (which is to) get as close to the end as possible and take the heat off the other guys.

"I was able to do that off 'Larko' (Nick Larkin) today – let him play the way he plays, and me be the aggressor at the other end.

"It worked out beautifully tonight, it doesn't always work out like that, but to go into the ODIs feeling really good is nice."

Maxwell is one of two batsmen (Aaron Finch is the other) set to appear in the three-match Gillette ODI series against India who featured in Australia's successful 2015 World Cup campaign, where he was a star of the tournament predominantly from No.6.

The middle order has been a problem area for the Aussies since; from 174 innings from numbers four, five and six, only two hundreds have been scored, while a combined batting average of 31.29 in those positions from 63 matches is above only West Indies, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan among full member nations.

Given the apparent shift in direction of selectors for this ODI batting group from all-out power to a mix of deftness and destruction, as evidenced by the axings of D'Arcy Short and Chris Lynn and the recalls of Usman Khawaja and Pete Handscomb, Maxwell could again be tasked with a role similar to that which he played in the last World Cup.

And with the series against India just a week away, only Finch's position in the batting order is not up for debate; the remaining six batsmen in the top seven could feasibly be shuffled into any position in the order.

Maxwell said the omissions of the star KFC Big Bash duo Lynn and Short was a simple matter of output; neither has performed strongly in their opportunities in the ODI side.

"(The selectors) made that pretty clear when I got dropped from the Test squad – I wasn't performing enough and they duly got rid of me," he said. "So I think they've done the same thing in the one-day stuff.

"Obviously those guys (Lynn and Short) are very clean strikers. They've been playing really good cricket this BBL, so I'm sure they would've been disappointed to miss out, but there's still a lot of quality in that ODI squad, and hopefully if they pile on a lot of runs they'll put their name up for World Cup selection."