IPL 2024: Glenn Maxwell takes "mental and physical" break

Royal Challengers Bengaluru allrounder Glenn Maxwell decided to take a mental and physical break from the IPL 2024 after his disappointing form in batting Maxwell did not feature in the IPL 2024 match against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium which was initially attributed to a finger injury He sustained this injury during the clash against Mumbai IndiansIt was a pretty easy decision I went to Faf and the coaches after the last game vs Mumbai Indians and said it was probably time we tried someone else in his place Maxwell said in the postmatch press meetIts actually a good time to give myself a bit of a mental and physical break get my body right If Im required to get in during the tournament I can hopefully get back into a solid mental and physical space where I can make an impact he addedAlso ReadIN PHOTOS IPL 2024 RCB vs SRH A T20 blockbusterThis is not the first time the veteran opted out of the game Previously in 2019 he cited the reason of mentally and physically ruined to take a break from the game Later on he made a comeback after two monthsIn the IPL 2024 Maxwell is yet to put on an impressive show with the willow In six matches he has only scored 32 runs at an average of 533 and a strikerate of 94Twentyeight of those 32 runs came against Kolkata Knight Riders alone helped to a great degree by two dropped catches I have been in this situation in the past where you can keep playing and get yourself deeper into a hole We have had a pretty big deficiency after the power play which has been my area of strength over the last couple of seasonsI felt like I wasnt contributing with the bat and with the results and the position we find ourselves on the table I think its a good time to give someone else an opportunity to show their wares and hopefully someone can make that spot their own a candid Maxwell saidThe bighitting Australian however still hoped to return and make an impact in the later stages of the tournamentThe management here has been outstanding I dont think Ive had a better six months in cricket leading into this tournament So its frustrating when it ends up like this But if I can get my body and my mind right theres no reason I cant finish the tournament well if I do get another opportunity he saidThe sudden dip in his form was surprising as from November onwards he scored 552 runs in 17 T20I matchesBut the Victorian started the IPL 2024 with a firstball duck against Chennai Super Kings in an away match and from that point his fortunes plummetedT20 cricket is a pretty fickle game Even if you look at the first game I ran one off the middle of the bat to the keeper I picked up the length saw a scoring opportunity but opened the face a little bit too muchWhen you are going well that goes wide of the wicketkeepers gloves you get a boundary You are 4 off 1 and you are away for the tournament he notedI probably just havent got away In the first few games I feel I made reasonably good decisions for shot selection But I was finding ways to get outIt can happen in T20 cricket and when it snowballs like that you can go searching and try too hard and forget the basics of the game he saidMaxwell experienced a similar barren run in IPL 2020 while playing for Punjab Kings During that season the Australian scored a mere 108 runs from 11 matches and failed to hit a single sixHowever Maxwell did not draw parallels between the two seasons I was bowling really well back then I was actually playing more as a spinner We had KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal who were the two leading runscorers at that timeSo there werent a lot of balls left in the game for him I wasnt able to get any match rhythm So I said the same thing to the Punjab management that we can have an overseas bowler in my placeBut we didnt have an offspinner so I sort of played as an overseas offspinner who could bat a little bit he explainedWith PTI Inputs