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“It’s great to have him doing well at the top and being one of our best performers”
Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has announced that “it’s been great to have Bails [George Bailey] as skipper for this series” since he is leading by example and setting the standard for all the other players in the team.
Bailey was named captain for the ongoing limited overs tour of India after Michael Clarke failed to recover from a chronic back injury.
Maxwell also noted that Bailey has “settled into Pup’s [Clarke] shoes” in almost no time at all.
“George has obviously been an excellent captain for Tasmania back home and he’s done very well,” Maxwell said. “He’s won tournaments for them and he’s brought that straight into Australia. He’s a very confident captain. He’s always very upbeat out in the field. He’s good to talk to with the bowlers. He’s very calm. And especially when he’s making runs, he’s been such a consistent performer over the last 18 months.
“It’s great to have him doing well at the top and being one of our best performers, not just our skipper. He’s been brilliant for the group and has really settled into Pup’s [Clarke] shoes quickly. As much as we’re going to welcome Pup back, it’s been great to have Bails as skipper for this series.”
Bailey is currently Australia’s top-scorer in the series with 220 runs in three ODIs at an eye-popping average of 110.
Despite none of Australia’s batsmen having registered a century yet, Maxwell stated that it was not a major concern since it showed just how cohesive of a unit the baggy greens are.
“Even though no one has got a hundred yet, everyone has played pretty well,” he said. “All the batters are in good form and have scored runs through the series. It’s not a big concern. The guys obviously want to post three figures but even if they’re not, and we’re getting the job done, I think we’re very happy with the way we’re going. The game when we had 360 chased down, no one made 100. Our top five made fifties and that’s the first time in cricket history that’s happened. I don’t think we’re too worried about the triple-figure scores, as long as we keep getting over that 300 barrier and keep posting big totals.”
Maxwell recently toured South Africa with the Australia A squad, where he amassed 172 runs in two unofficial Tests at a brilliant average of 57.33.
He followed that up with 256 runs at an outstanding average of 64 in an ODI tri-series involving South Africa A and India A.
However, despite his success with Australia A, Maxwell has been disappointing with the bat in the ongoing series against India as he has only scored 87 runs at an average of 29.
“I think playing in South Africa for the A series over there helped my game a lot,” Maxwell said. “We started off with a couple of four-dayers and I really worked hard on my game. The wickets were pretty favourable for batting, so it was good to spend a bit of time in the middle. Over the last couple of years, I haven’t really spent a whole lot of time in the middle. I’ve gone in when we’ve needed to tee off at the end and play different roles. It was nice to work on my batting over there for an extended period of time.”