RCB’s Glenn Maxwell believes IPL 2021 is good ‘lead-in’ for T20 World Cup

Glenn Maxwell skipped the white-ball tours of the West Indies and Bangladesh in July and August alongside Steve Smith, Marcus Stoinis and David Warner.

Royal Challengers Bangalore's Glenn Maxwell. (Photo: BCCI/IPL)

Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell, who will represent Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021, has said that the T20 league will be good preparation for the T20 World Cup 2021 that immediately follows it.

“I think it’s a really good lead-in for the guys who are going to be over there,” Maxwell was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au on Thursday (September 16). “To be able to train in those facilities and acclimatise, it’s going to be hot and to have that extra month there I think it will be valuable for those guys,” he added.

Bold Diaries: Yuzi and Maxwell's Day Out

Yuzvendra Chahal was back in the thick of things, and Glenn Maxwell was close to his entertaining best as RCB moves one step closer towards the first match.#PlayBold #WeAreChallengers #IPL2021 pic.twitter.com/JNvp9pHoNS — Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) September 16, 2021

Maxwell skipped the white-ball tours of the West Indies and Bangladesh in July and August alongside Steve Smith, Marcus Stoinis and David Warner. They will be featuring in the remainder of the IPL 2021 that takes place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from September 19 to October 15. The IPL will be followed by the T20 World Cup in the UAE itself from October 17 to November 14.

The 32-year-old explained the reason behind missing the tours of the West Indies and Bangladesh and playing IPL. “The thought of going into another hard bubble was just really hard for people,” said Maxwell.

“Speaking to the guys that have just come back from Bangladesh and West Indies, they got the question put to them ‘if you had another tour in three weeks what would you think?’ and they understood why we took that time off,” he said further.

“It’s not easy going from hard bubble into a two-week quarantine, and then straight back into a hard bubble. That really takes its toll on some of the players.”

Australia can 100 per cent win the T20 World Cup: Maxwell

Maxwell, who was picked by the RCB for this season, is confident that Australia can win T20 World Cup. “One hundred per cent we can win it,” he said.

“I think we’ve got a great squad, and we’ve got a lot of experience in there. If you can get one or two players that are running hot at the start of the tournament, it can be hard to stop. I certainly feel like we've got more than enough match winners in our side to do that.”

(with IANS inputs)