Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has predicted that Friday’s match against Oman in Kandy will be Glenn Maxwell’s final World Cup appearance for Australia.
Maxwell, who helped Australia win World Cup titles in 2015 and 2023, has been one of the country’s most successful white-ball cricketers across the last decade, also lifting the T20 World Cup trophy in 2021.
However, the 37-year-old is struggling for consistency as he approaches the twilight of his international career, failing to muster a T20 fifty since August last year. His most recent scores in the game’s shortest format are 2, 2, 39*, 1, 1, 1, 20*, 3, 9*, 9, 31, 22, averaging 15.55 with a dismal strike rate of 113.82 during that period.
Speaking to The ICC Review following Australia’s T20 World Cup exit, where the nation was knocked out in the group stage of a World Cup event for the first time in 17 years, Ponting declared that Maxwell would not return for the next edition of the tournament in 2028, which will be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand. The Victorian, who recently penned a two-year contract extension with the Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash League, has already retired from ODIs, so he won’t feature in next year’s World Cup in South Africa.
“Glenn Maxwell, I don’t think will be there (in 2028),” Ponting said.
“It looks to me like his career is coming towards an end.”
Australia was eliminated from the T20 World Cup this week after suffering consecutive losses to Zimbabwe and co-hosts Sri Lanka, with the team’s the middle-order batterd struggling to adapt to the subcontinent’s foreign conditions.
“I think Mitchell Marsh will probably hang on long enough for (the 2028 T20 World Cup) and I think Travis Head will definitely be around and (Josh) Inglis will be around,” Ponting continued.
“Steve Smith has been very vocal about him wanting to be a part of an Olympic team as well. Whether or not that happens is a different story. Cameron Green will be around if his form is good enough to stay in the side. You would think Nathan Ellis would be around, Xavier Bartlett will be there. Cooper Connolly would be there and thereabouts.
“Marcus Stoinis would also probably be a question mark, but he’s predominantly playing only T20 cricket tournaments around the world these days. Doesn’t play a lot of state cricket and obviously plays the BBL, so with his all round ability, he might be there.
“There will be some change. Matthew Kuhnemann, he’s young enough to still be around as well if they decide to have two spinners in their lineups.”
