IPL 2022 | Glenn Maxwell is yet to live up to the hype!

On April 16, 2022, the Royal Challengers Bangalore were up against the Delhi Capitals. 

But batting first, they'd soon find themselves in a spot of bother. Khaleel and Thakur were all over a fidgety top order that looked about as confident against the moving delivery as is the hare spotting a vicious predator in its trail. 

The scoreboard wasn't looking any good; from 1 for 5, it would soon recede to 13-2. 

The strongman of Bangalore, Faf du Plessis, had departed. And while there was some gladness that Virat Kohli was still around, perhaps it wasn't as gladdening a sight as that of the batsman who soon walked into the middle to take control. 

His name - Glenn Maxwell. 

His habit - to ruffle the feathers of the opposition whilst playing his firebrand style of cricket. 

And that's precisely what he did as Glenn Maxwell went about toying with the very Delhi bowlers that had put his side onto the backfoot, albeit unexpectedly.

He'd soon launch into an avalanche of big hitting hitherto less imagined and even less expected given the pressure RCB was in. 

And while Bangalore were dutifully helped by a rollicking 66 by Dinesh Karthik, arguably amongst the finest lower order knocks this season, the side were truly resuscitated by the one man who was on fire when none sadly were: Glenn Maxwell. 

His 55 had come off just 34 deliveries, and it featured 40 runs in boundaries( 2 sixes included).  

In the end, the RCB's 189 were too much for Delhi to chase down; Faf's side easily won the contest, which was then their sixth game of the tournament. 

But that was April 16. Today, we stare at the other half of May. 

Mathematically speaking, a month has gone by since Glenn Maxwell's rip-roaring show. 

Until such time - Faf has hit his unbeaten 73 against the Sunrisers and a top-of-the-chart 96 versus Lucknow. In his next seven innings since the Wankhede heroics back in the day, Dinesh Karthik has remained unbeaten on three separate occasions. 

What's more? The RCB are a mile away from the touching distance of qualifying for the final four of the show-stopping league.

Though, what you'd probably consider a low point is that up to this point, Glenn Maxwell has not even managed a forty-odd knock, let alone a fifty. 

To his credit, he's scored an 18-ball 33 against Gujarat, which was followed by a knock of 22-ball 35 against Punjab. 

Both innings producing strike rates comfortably north of 150. 

And while none of these innings helped Bangalore as such since they lost both contests, which isn't really Maxwell's fault, would you consider that the Australian has set the IPL 2022 on fire? 

The Glenn Maxwell who's currently on display isn't the one RCB fans need; one who takes his time to settle in and would necessarily go for the early cross-batted hits versus the spinners, which are rife with risk. 

Rather, the Maxwell we all need is the one who nearly tore down the Chennai attack during a whirlwind 11-ball-26, a knock that provided a saving grace to the side whose top order had bundled out contributing 21 collectively. 

His latest outing with the bat produced 33 runs. But these really weren't "big numbers" as such by the name famously nicknamed the 'Big Show!'

For it took Maxwell 4 overs to produce another thirty-something knock, which found itself bettered by the likes of Patidar and Faf, the skipper scoring a panache-inducing fifty to win the game. 

Whilst technically speaking, there's no technical weaklings in Glenn Maxwell's game. And not is the case the "see-the-ball-hit-the-ball" batter isn't scoring runs. 

Rather it's all that he can still score but isn't, is where the problem rests. 

To be absolutely fair, Pant's 30 something or, for that matter, Hetmyer's cameos come at more fluent rates than what we're seeing from the bat of the right-hander. 

Neither of them, Hetmyer, more specifically, are rated as highly as Glenn Maxwell. 

To his credit, it can be seen that Maxwell is still persisting with the big hits. Still goes for his shots. Is absolutely punishing to anything bowled short or in his zone, the kind of approach that stalwarts of the IPL such as Pollard have, quite simply, failed to do. 

But where it doesn't quite sit well, particularly from an RCB perspective, is that they've effectively speaking, retained a player for 11 crores who's making thirty odd runs and hasn't scored more than a solitary fifty. 

In the advent of a Kohli failure, which hasn't been a rare sight, unfortunately, and a poor outing for Faf, it's up to Maxwell to set the show on fire. But has he really done that with resounding success? 

Though, fortune favours the brave. And the Aussie is a daring bat. Luckily for him, that RCB have a slight chance of making it to the playoffs - and who knows, even the semis- augurs a fresh new chance for the show stopper to actually put forth a Big Show!