IPL 2018: Ricky Ponting Reveals Why Out of Sorts Glenn Maxwell Was Given a Longer Rope Despite Poor Form

Ricky Ponting, on Sunday (May 20), defended Delhi Daredevils (DD) team-management’s decision to give Glenn Maxwell consistent chance despite his poor outing with the bat. The Australian allrounder never looked in form throughout but still ended up playing 12 games.

The Daredevils tried him in the middle-order, promoted him as an opener but nothing worked. He finished his season with just 169 runs. The hard-hitting batsman’s average of 14.08 is the lowest for a batsman this season (Min 100 runs and five innings played).

But despite visible struggles of Maxwell, the team-management showed immense faith in him, giving him chances after chances.

The Daredevils finished this eleventh season at the bottom of the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) points table. But while it was a season to forget for them, they managed to finish it on a good note. They notched back-to-back wins to end their season on a high on Sunday (May 20).

The Shreyas Iyer-led side defeated defending champions Mumbai Indians by 11 runs to register its fourth win in 14 matches.

Speaking after the game, Ponting expressed his surprise over constant struggles of Glenn Maxwell

“I wish I knew. I have spent a long time with Glenn over the years. A few weeks before this tournament, I did a lot of work with him, I spent time with him at the Australian team. He was a man of the series there and was in good form,” PTI quotes Ponting.

The veteran cricketer added Ponting expected Maxwell to come good ahead of the IPL season.

“I think the thing that held him was the wish to play well. He missed the first game due to Aaron Finch’s wedding. When he came back into the side, he was batting at number 5, he didn’t play all that much in that position and he was frustrated that he didn’t have an impact on the result for his team,” he added.

Maxwell impressed in Australia’s Tri-nation Twenty20 tournament against New Zealand and England in February, with scores of 40*, 103*, 39, 31 and 20*.

Ponting went on to reveal why the team-management continued to give Maxwell chance after chance.

“He is outstanding but he had a disappointing IPL this season. We did stick with him because every game for us, even though we didn’t qualify, we were taking as a final and we wanted to put the team on a path that would give us best chance of winning and if you analyse the overseas batsmen Glenn Maxwell was going to be the best chance of a match winner for us,” reasoned Ponting.