'Big Show' at IPL Auction: Glenn Maxwell's journey to hell and back

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From hitting a nadir mentally to hitting the jackpot on comeback, Glenn Maxwell has had quite a ride in a matter of months.

Two months back, Maxwell felt "ruined" and perhaps wanted to be somewhere which wouldn't be remotely close to the 22 yards.

But cricket, as they say, is a great leveller in every sense of the term. The game that seemed to have pushed him towards depression has now fetched him a cool USD 1.51 million (Rs 10.75 crore) and probably given him a chance to pick up the pieces and start afresh.

For someone, who is yet to fulfil his true potential for Australia, Maxwell has always been a big draw for the IPL franchises, especially Kings XI Punjab where he was much sought after.

No wonder then that as he begins a fresh journey after his battles with mental illness, there couldn't have been a better franchise to start off with than KXIP, where fans once fondly called him "Glenpreet Singh'.

"He was very much on our radar. We needed one of those X-factors. He's been with us in the past so he knows the exact layout of the team," KXIP CEO Sathish Menon said after their franchise won the intense bidding war.

Maxwell had only recently opened up about his struggles.

"I was pretty cooked when I decided to take the time off. Big reason why I did take that time away is I was pretty mentally and physically ruined," Maxwell was quoted as saying a few days back after he returned to training.

But as Menon put it aptly, he brings the 'X-factor' that the franchises look for in a tournament like IPL. Maxwell has the ability to hit those big sixes, some of them landing on the top tier of the stadiums.

The franchise is aware about his battles with mental illness but feels that he is now back in the zone and if the ball would be in the arc, it would land out of the park.

"On the mental issues, these things come and go. I'm sure he's coming out of it. We have been tracking him a lot. We're sure he's back in his zone. We certainly wanted him, we would have filled that slot at any cost," Menon said.

Kings XI Punjab's one and only final appearance was in 2013 and it was Maxwell's carnage at the start of the tournament that gave them that advantage.

It's time again, he plays that role and gets his place back in that Australian dressing room where he rightfully belongs.