The Big Show Glenn Maxwell is finally making his presence felt in the IPL. Having been released by the Punjab Kings after a string of mediocre performances over the last few years, Maxwell was snapped up by RCB for a whopping Rs 14.25 crores and he has not let down so far. He began with a stroke-filled 37 against the Mumbai Indians and followed it up with two back to back half-centuries making sure that Bangalore keep a tight grasp at the top of the points table.
Meanwhile, the pitches at the MA Chidambaram Stadium has never quite helped RCB in the past. However, they have turned things around this year winning all the games there so far. Maxwell revealed that how it went through in the training process and how it was a challenge to face experienced campaigners like Harbhajan Singh and Shakib Al Hasan.
“I have trained so specifically since I have been here. I am almost going into the game knowing exactly what I am going to face. Playing against Harbhajan and Shakib back to back was challenging, but I have faced them earlier as well. So I had to put them away early on."
"We saw how the Chennai wicket played. If y0u don’t score runs at the front end, it’s not going to be easy to score at the backend,” Maxwell said.
The orange cap and the purple catch has transferred from heads to heads. While Harshal Patel has created a significant gap with the second-ranked bowler in the Purple Cap race, Shikhar Dhawan has also gone 70 runs clear of Glenn Maxwell in the orange cap race.
“Every team has a brand new orange and a purple cap before every game. Harshal Patel has got the purple cap and he wears it everywhere, be it the team room, training ground, during the game. Everywhere he is, he just carries the purple cap. I have already taken one and put it in the bag. With Shikhar Dhawan on fire, it’s hard to get it now,” Maxwell said.
“There was actually a game we played a few years ago when KL Rahul had won the cap in the first innings and just in the first over of the second innings, the other guy took over," Maxwell added.
"In the last game, there was actually a time that I was batting and I took over Nitish Rana for the orange cap. One of the 12th members of the team was about to come and chuck Nitish’s cap and put it on me, that would have been some sort of scene, but then he went running back,” Maxwell said.
The presence of bigwigs like Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers has helped Maxwell gel into the RCB outfit. In whichever teams he had played earlier, Maxwell was the only Big show in the XI and several things were expected out of him. However, in RCB, Kohli and AB de Villiers are the two big names that have taken the pressure out of Maxwell and he has been able to play his game freely. He says that his main aim throughout the tournament will be set up a perfect platform for AB de Villiers.
"My main aim is to continue to try to set AB up for the rest of the tournament in every game,” Maxwell said.