Returning to competitive cricket after a three-month gap, Glenn Maxwell is struggling to get that "mental application" back and is leaving no stone unturned in "building match intensity" to be ready for the crucial ODI series against India, which will also host the World Cup later this year. All-rounders Maxwell, Mitchell Marsh and paceman Jhye Richardson on Thursday returned to Australia's 16-member ODI squad after a long injury lay-off.
Australia to nurse players
While Maxwell and Marsh underwent surgeries for broken leg and ankle injury respectively, Richardson was out of the team due to a soft tissue problem. Maxwell said he is still coming to terms with the mental side of the game after making a comeback to cricket in Victoria's Marsh Sheffield Shield victory over South Australia this week.
"During the Shield game, probably mentally batting in that position I wasn't quite there," Maxwell was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
"In the nets you can do all the hard work but to get that mental application back in the game is obviously a different thing.
"That's probably something I'm working on over the next few games … to try and get a few more hits out there and build up that match intensity," he added.
That's exactly the reason the 34-year-old all-rounder has packed his off-season schedule with as many matches as possible to get back to rhythm before the ODI World Cup in India in October-November.
"Having not played for three-and-a-half months, I made a conscious decision to make sure I filled up my calendar with cricket to lead into that World Cup of the back end of the year," Maxwell said.
"We've got the one-day series which is going to be a big series especially with the World Cup in India and will be a good opportunity for us to try and work out some things and get our game plan ready … as well as having the IPL straight after it."
Maxwell hopes the injury-forced break will help in prolonging his career.
"Hopefully this (forced break) will extend a little bit of time at the back end of my career and hopefully I can play some good cricket for the rest of my career."
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Marsh to play as batter
Marsh, however, made it clear that at the moment he doesn't want to risk his career by bowling and is likely to play in India only as a batter. The 31-year-old said he decided to go under the knife to extend his career as an all-rounder.
"I haven't started bowling yet, so we'll progress that over the next few weeks.
I'm confident in myself to play as a batsman, but I've always loved playing as an all-rounder, bowling allows me to be in the game at all times and I'll continue to be an all-rounder for as long as I possibly can."
The three-match ODI series between India and Australia will be played in Mumbai on March 17, Visakhapatnam on March 19 and Chennai on March 22.
