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Australia allrounder Glenn Maxwell has revealed that he requested Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) management to omit him from the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), seeking a "mental and physical break" following a challenging beginning to his IPL 2024 season.
Addressing the press conference after RCB's 25-run loss to SRH, Maxwell disclosed that he informed captain Faf du Plessis and the coaching staff that it might be beneficial to give someone else a chance. But he believes he can still impact RCB if he is required to play his season.
The 35-year-old allrounder had a lackluster start to the season, managing only 32 runs across six innings, with three ducks. This contributed to RCB's position at the bottom of the standings, having secured just one win.
Maxwell entered IPL 2024 in scintillating form. He had delivered two T20I hundreds, one in Guwahati against India and another in Adelaide against West Indies. This impressive run came shortly after his outstanding performance in the ODI World Cup, where he scored a double hundred in a chase against Afghanistan.
"I probably just haven't got away - it's as simple as that. In the first few games, I feel I made reasonably good decisions, but I was still finding ways to get out. It 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," said Maxwell.
Maxwell's tenure with RCB has been stellar, with three outstanding seasons under his belt. He amassed 513 runs at an impressive strike rate of 144.10 in 2021, followed by 301 runs 169.1 and then 400 runs at a strike rate of 183.49 between 2021 to 2023.
Monday's game against SRH turned out to be a high-scoring one, that saw the highest aggregate of runs 549 - in a T20 match.
"But as I said, I wanted to give myself not just the physical break but also the mental break to give myself the right to play professional cricket. I take a lot of pride in my performance, and I put in a lot of hard work behind the scenes to get my body right for every game. And it has been a pretty tough struggle, given my body is on the wrong side of 30. I think that physical and mental toll probably just wore me down a little bit," he added.
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