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Rashid Khan takes three wickets in a set as Southern Brave suffer third straight defeat

ECB Media18-Aug-2025An all-action display from Sam Curran and another eye-catching half-century from Jordan Cox eased reigning champions Oval Invincibles to a seven-wicket win over Southern Brave and extended their lead at the top of the table.Set 134 to win, Invincibles lost their openers cheaply, Will Jacks and Tawanda Muyeye both falling to Craig Overton, but Cox continued his red-hot form with a classy 37-ball 56 and Curran capped a fine all-round performance by making an unbeaten 50 from 32 deliveries.Cox fell to Tymal Mills with 15 still required but captain Sam Billings struck three boundaries to ensure there were no further alarms as the visitors sealed the win with 11 balls to spare, their fourth victory in five.Invincibles overcame Brave in last year’s final and they made an impressive start at Utilita Bowl, Australia left-armer Jason Behrendorff making early inroads when he had both James Vince and Leus du Plooy caught at short third by Tom Curran, who then knocked back Laurie Evans’ off stump to leave the Brave 32 3.Things went from bad to worse for the hosts when Rashid Khan was thrown the ball. Six days ago, the Afghan leggie returned figures of 0 for 59 at Edgbaston but he was irrepressible against Brave, striking three times in his opening set to send Jason Roy, Michael Bracewell and James Coles on their way. Those scalps took Rashid to a competition-high haul of 10 in the Hundred this summer.With the Brave sinking fast at 44 for 6, Hilton Cartwright and Jordan Thompson counterattacked, the latter making a sprightly 13-ball 24 before nicking off to Sam Curran, who then castled Cartwright (42 off 30) with a pinpoint yorker.Curran struck again to dismiss Jofra Archer with a super-slow delivery before Mills was the last man out, run out by the live-wire Curran, to end the Brave innings on 133 from 98 balls, not enough to prevent last year’s runners-up slumping to a third straight defeat.Sam Curran, the Meerkat Match Hero, said: “It was a really big win. The way the table is at the moment, we knew it was such a big game, they’re a really good team.”I’m just really enjoying it. It’s a lovely bunch of guys. We’ve been together a while and turning up to work and playing with your mates and having coaches who know you is great.”On sharing a 101-run partnership with Cox, he said: “He’s special, the way he’s playing is incredible. The way he’s striking the ball is so clean and so skilful. Our partnership took the pressure off early. We knew they had some key bowlers and thankfully we saw them off and got the win.”

Bangladesh are waiting on the fitness of Mahmudullah, who batted in the nets in Rawalpindi

Mohammad Isam23-Feb-2025Bangladesh’s top order has to stand up and be counted for the side to have any chance against New Zealand, head coach Phil Simmons feels.Bangladesh were soundly beaten by India in their first game, and this is perform or perish for them.Simmons said Bangladesh had given the game away to India with their poor starts with both bat and ball. “We lost in batting in overs one to ten, and the same in bowling. We have to make sure we win in those areas,” Simmons said ahead of the New Zealand game. “We need to assess and put together our batting better in the first ten overs. The middle and lower order have done really well so it is up to our top-order batsmen to put things together in the first ten or 15 overs, especially.”Related

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Bangladesh had slipped to 35 for 5 in the ninth over in that game in Dubai. Soumya Sarkar fell in Mohammad Shami’s first over before captain Najmul Hossain Shanto gave Virat Kohli a catch at cover in the second. Tanzid Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz didn’t last too long either, while Mushfiqur Rahim fell for a golden duck.Simmons said that the openers must assess conditions quicker and that Bangladesh should take inspiration from all the big scores in the tournament, especially Australia’s chase of 352 against England. That game was in Lahore, Bangladesh take on New Zealand in Rawalpindi, the first of this tournament’s matches at the venue.”This is a big-scoring ground. We saw the score in Lahore yesterday. We are looking at 300-plus here,” Simmons said. “In the last five matches, we made 300 a couple of times. So we have the ability to do it. We didn’t start well in the last game, but still we got to 200 [231]. If we start well, we will get there [300].”Bangladesh are facing a familiar opposition in New Zealand – they have faced them most frequently in bilateral cricket than anyone else since 2015. “All the games in this tournament are pressure games. These are the top-eight teams in the world, and you expect every game to be hard,” Simmons said. “They [New Zealand] are definitely playing well but tomorrow is a new day. We will try to make sure that they don’t play as well as they have been playing.”New Zealand won their first game in convincing fashion against Pakistan and if they win here, they will be through to the semi-finals alongside India.”The way the guys have been planning and netting and stuff has all been good stuff”•ICC via Getty Images

Their captain Mitchell Santner said his batters’ form in the last couple of weeks has given the dressing room a lot of confidence. “I think obviously the lead-in we had with that tri-series [against Pakistan and South Africa], it was a good time for guys to get time in the middle. I think at different stages of every game we have played, different guys have stepped up, which is probably the most pleasing thing.”I think the guys took a lot of confidence in that going into that first game against Pakistan, but then also here into Bangladesh. Again, it’s probably a reset, it’s a different surface, a different team. But I think the way the guys have been planning and netting and stuff has all been good stuff.”Bangladesh are waiting on the fitness of Mahmudullah who missed the first game owing to hamstring issues, having injured himself during training. He batted in the nets in Rawalpindi ahead of the New Zealand game.Simmons hoped Bangladesh would be motivated about being in Rawalpindi, the scene of their 2-0 Test series win against Pakistan last year. “I hope it does [inspire the team]. To come into Pakistan and beat Pakistan is not an easy thing. I hope it has a significant bearing on how they think about this ground.”

Injury and illness had hindered his summer but he is determined to return to help the Scorchers make a run at the BBL final

Alex Malcolm23-Jan-2020Australia batsman Ashton Turner has said he is determined to learn from the toughest summer of his career as he prepares to help the Perth Scorchers make a run at the BBL final.Turner returns to the Scorchers side, after a lean tour of India with Australia’s ODI side, for Friday night’s vital clash with Adelaide Strikers in Perth. A victory there could all but secure their place in the top four, with one game left against fellow-aspirants Sydney Thunder on Sunday.Turner has endured a nightmare season to date. In 21 matches across three formats in international and domestic cricket, he has managed just one half-century in 19 innings, having passed 15 just six times.There are significant mitigating circumstances that have hindered his summer. He was coming off a major shoulder surgery in the pre-season that severally hampered his preparation. He then broke his finger in late September and missed a month of cricket prior to playing for Australia in the two T20 series against Pakistan and Sri Lanka.On return to domestic cricket, he had to captain Western Australia following Mitchell Marsh’s broken hand and led them to the Marsh Cup title but was dropped as acting captain from the Sheffield Shield side just a few weeks later after four single-figure scores in two games.His BBL campaign started disastrously with a run-out in Sydney. In early January he was hospitalised for three nights with a severe middle-ear infection that saw him miss two BBL fixtures prior to departing to India.”I’ve faced some challenges this season that I haven’t had to face before,” Turner said. “I’ve missed games with injuries, some with illness. I’ve been really fortunate that I’ve been picked to play for Australia in white-ball cricket, which has meant that I’ve travelled a bit more and been jumping between formats more than I ever have before.”I’m really lucky for that opportunity but it also presents challenges that I haven’t had to face before. I haven’t had an extended run at any format for any period of time as I have in the past and it was something that I’ve just got to adapt to and become more flexible and it’s something that I’m only going to get better at with time.”It’s something that I’ve sat down and thought about and put some plans in place for the future.”In an ODI in Mohali in March, Ashton Turner’s 43-ball 84 helped Australia chase down 359•Getty Images

Turner’s remarkable performance in Mohali on Australia’s previous tour India in early 2019 has been a marker by which his last 12 months have been judged. But he doesn’t feel that innings has been a burden for him.”It didn’t put extra pressure,” Turner said. “It probably gave me confidence if anything. No matter how things are going I know my best is good enough and that I can perform against the best in the world, which India in their own conditions probably are.”It’s a key point of my career that I can always look back to and reference and if I’m ever in doubt. It’s a time when all of my planning and preparation combine to produce the outcome that I strive for. It gives me confidence playing for Australia that I belong there and likewise, I’ve had performances for the Perth Scorchers before that I can look back on before a game tomorrow night that I can have fond memories of.”Turner is an important inclusion to the Scorchers’ middle order that has been heavily reliant on their opening combination of Liam Livingstone and Josh Inglis as well as the skipper Mitchell Marsh. Spinning allrounder Ashton Agar also returns to the side post the India tour. Chris Jordan will play his final game for the Scorchers before departing for England duty with Morne Morkel set to play his first game on Sunday.Turner’s return comes at the expense of Cameron Green, who has been dropped after a lean tournament. Turner believes Green will be a better player for the experience.”Having done it before, batting 6 and 7 in T20 cricket is a tough job,” Turner said. “Particularly at the start of your career. I started my career in that position and I was lucky that I got to bat behind some pretty good players at the Perth Scorchers and had limited opportunities. I was able to kickstart my career that way.”I see Cam Green in the future being a top order. There’s a reason we’ve given him so much exposure and game time. I think being able to play 12 games of BBL is like gold…he’s only going to be better for the run and we’re only going to see more of Cam Green in the future.”

Allrounder in line for first Durham appearance since 2018 after finger injury

Matt Roller07-Jun-2021Ben Stokes is set to play his first T20 Blast game for nearly three years next week when he makes his comeback from the finger injury he suffered in the IPL.The early stages of the Blast, which begins on Wednesday, will see a number of England players including Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow and Adil Rashid make their first appearances in the competition for several years, and Stokes – who last played in Durham’s quarter-final defeat to Sussex in 2018 – is among them.Stokes’ injury had initially been expected to keep him out of action for up to 12 weeks, or early July, but his recovery from surgery has been smooth. “I’m able to bowl, I’m able to get in the gym and I’m able to hit some balls again,” Stokes wrote in his column last week. “I’m at an exciting point of my recovery where full-on training is not that far away and then I can start thinking about playing in a match again.”Details of Stokes’ comeback are yet to be confirmed by the ECB and he could target one of the back-to-back 2nd XI T20s against Lancashire on June 14, but Durham have four fixtures in the Blast from June 15-20 and he is likely to return in one of them.England are due to name a squad for the limited-overs series against Sri Lanka later this week, with the group scheduled to meet up on June 19 ahead of the first T20I in Cardiff on June 23. Eoin Morgan suggested in March that he was expecting to be without England’s multi-format players during this summer’s white-ball series, but their unavailability for the ongoing New Zealand Tests following the IPL could yet see them named in this squad.Players selected for the white-ball squads and not involved in the squad for the second New Zealand Test will be available to appear in up to six rounds of the Blast, depending on their respective teams’ fixture lists. That means Buttler and Stokes are both likely to play more games in the Blast than in the Hundred this summer, with England’s Test players set to play a maximum of three group games and the knockout stages in the new 100-ball competition.Related

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Buttler – whose last appearance for Lancashire in any format was on Finals Day in 2018 – is set to play the first of his six games on Wednesday afternoon against Derbyshire, in a strong Lancashire side that will also feature Liam Livingstone, Matt Parkinson, Saqib Mahmood and New Zealand’s Finn Allen.Bairstow and Rashid will play their first T20s for Yorkshire since 2016 and 2018 respectively and are set to be available for up to five fixtures, while Dawid Malan and Joe Root will also be partially available. “It’s been a while since I’ve played for Yorkshire because of injury, availability, Covid, all that sort of stuff,” Rashid said. “But I’m definitely looking forward to it: it’s always a privilege to play for Yorkshire, where I was born and bred.”Chris Woakes, whose last Blast match was in 2018, is also due to appear for Birmingham Bears after he gets through games for the 2nd XI on Monday and Wednesday. Moeen Ali’s last match in the Blast was the 2019 final: he missed the whole of Worcestershire’s 2020 season while on England duty, but has been warming up for the Blast by playing for their 2nd XI.Chris Jordan has returned to the UK from Barbados and will play for Sussex this week, but the group stages are likely to come too soon for Jofra Archer as he continues a period of “intensive rehabilitation” following elbow surgery. Morgan himself is due to be available to captain Middlesex in the early stages of their season following a break from the game after the IPL.Jason Roy, Sam Curran and Tom Curran will all be available for Surrey’s opening fixtures. Roy made five Blast appearances last summer, but the Currans have not played since 2019. They were due to play their first unofficial games since the IPL’s postponement on Friday, but rain washed out a planned intra-squad friendly at The Oval.

Middlesex slip to heavy defeat despite Jack Davies’ debut half-century

ECB Reporters Network25-Jul-2021Alastair Cook and Tom Westley crashed big half-centuries as Essex crushed Middlesex by nine wickets in the Royal London Cup.England legend Cook clocked his 48th List A fifty to end 92 not out while Eagles captain Westley returned an unbeaten 87, the pair putting on 159 together.Essex were only chasing 212 after Shane Snater’s 3 for 45 and two-fors for Simon Harmer and Ryan ten Doeschate, and completed a comprehensive victory with 11 overs to spare to maintain their 100 per cent record in the competition.Westley won the toss and restricted Middlesex to a below-par 212, with runs not flowing particularly freely on a green-tinged wicket under thick grey clouds.Sam Robson was the exception to the rule has he stroked 18 in nine balls before he was strangled down the leg-side by Snater. Joe Cracknell was leg-before to Snater and Australian Peter Handscomb was excellently snaffled at first slip by Cook as the visitors slumped to 31 for 3.Middlesex then produced their two, much needed, partnerships of note as Max Holden and Robbie White added 49 before Holden top-edged a sweep to the short boundary and was replaced by Jack Davies, who put on 67 with White.Related

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Neither White nor Davies scored at any great speed but ticked along, the former falling for 47 lbw to Paul Walter, while List A debutant Davies reached his half-century in 67 balls.Middlesex lost their last five wickets for 39 runs as Luke Hollman was lbw to Westley, James Harris chipped straight back to Harmer, Thilan Walallawita edged ten Doeschate behind and then the Dutchman produced cat-like reactions to pouch a return from Davies. Snater ended up at the top of the wicket pile, returning 3 for 45, as Ethan Bamber pulled into the leg side to end the innings.Essex’s chase looked in little doubt from the moment Will Buttleman cut Walallawita to the boundary with the fourth ball. Cook looked in sumptuous form with pure timing trumping outright power. An on-drive through midwicket, a straight drive and a push through the off side typified his style and got him motoring.Buttleman flicked straight to Robson at short midwicket, having put on 54, with Cook in a rare batting misjudgement from the hosts.
Cook reached his 20th format fifty for Essex in 60 balls with a flick off his legs, with Westley unfurling some glorious stroke play as the duo reached a century partnership in 118 deliveries.Westley moved to his half-century in 59 balls before threatening to overtake his experienced partner, and eventually preventing him from reaching three figures.

The former India captain serves dual roles: president of the Cricket Association of Bengal and advisor to Delhi Capitals

Nagraj Gollapudi03-Apr-2019Former India captain Sourav Ganguly has been asked by the BCCI to respond to the charge of conflict of interest. Ganguly is the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) and also an advisor to the Delhi Capitals IPL franchise.On Monday, the BCCI ombudsman Justice DK Jain, who also serves as the board’s ethics officer, asked Ganguly for an explanation. ESPNcricinfo understands that Ganguly has informed Justice Jain that he will send his reply by April 7.Three Kolkata residents, Ranjit Seal, Bhaswati Santua and Abhijeet Mukherjee, have written to Justice Jain asking how Ganguly could be allowed to be part of the Delhi Capitals set-up on April 12, when the team travels to Eden Gardens, home of the CAB, to play Kolkata Knight Riders.Justice Jain confirmed to that he had written to Ganguly. “Yes, I have asked Sourav Ganguly to respond to the complaints with regards to conflict of interest as Delhi Capitals advisor and state association president.”Although Ganguly’s case might not fall under the direct, indirect, tractable or intractable conflicts as defined in the new BCCI constitution, Justice Jain is likely to pay close attention to clause 38 (4), which states that a person cannot hold two positions at the same point out of 16 listed. The clause says: “It is clarified that no individual is allowed to occupy more than one of the following posts at a single point of time except where prescribed under these rules.”The 16 positions include: “any person who is governance, management or employee of a franchisee”, and “Office Bearer of a Member.”Ganguly was recently roped in by Delhi Capitals as an advisor although the nature of his role is not clearly defined. So far this season Ganguly has been in Capitals’ dugout and has been involved in their training sessions alongside head coach Ricky Ponting. Incidentally, Ganguly had resigned as the head of the BCCI technical committee before joining Capitals, to avoid a direct conflict.Ganguly was present at Capitals’ training session in Delhi on Wednesday, guiding players through their drills and even taking part in a game of foot-volley.

India struggled their way to 132 after being asked to bat, found it difficult to field, and had Radha Yadav injured while diving

S Sudarshanan11-Sep-2022India captain Harmanpreet Kaur feels the side “forcefully played” in damp conditions in the first T20I against England in Chester-le-Street where the match was delayed because of rain earlier in the day.India were asked to bat in and they struggled their way to put up a big score as England spinners kept them to 132 for 7. While the outfield was sluggish and a bit slippery due to the wetness, the pitch was also not conducive to strokeplay. India also found it difficult to field during the chase, dropping catches and misjudging balls to let them escape to the boundary.”I think in the end we were not able to get that many runs we were expecting,” Harmanpreet said after the match. “I just feel today we forcefully played because it was not 100% conditions for cricket to play. Still I am happy the way girls put the effort because when there are chances to get injured but they are ready to play.”That’s what you need to have team-mates in the team [for] who can score in whatever conditions and I am happy the way we put our efforts.”Only Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet and Deepti Sharma managed to score 20 or more as legspinner Sarah Glenn (4 for 23) had the batters in a tangle along with offspinner Bryony Smith and left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone. Glenn and Smith picked five off the seven Indian wickets. Mandhana was happy to use the extra pace T20I debutant Lauren Bell offered early on to score three of her four fours. But taking pace off meant the ball held up on the surface and occasionally stayed low as well. Case in point being Harmanpreet’s dismissal.She had managed to get off the blocks pretty quickly but when she tried to come down the track to hit through the line of a delivery that Glenn landed on a length, it stayed low to hit off stump. Harmanpreet could only stare at the surface and her partner before walking off.In the second over of the chase, when Radha Yadav dived to her left at backward point, she seemed to have jammed her shoulder into the ground and walked out clutching it in pain. There were more instances of fielders in the deep either over-running the ball or slipping to let the ball through, and Sophia Dunkley and Alice Capsey capitalised on it to complete the nine-wicket win.”I know it was not 100% conditions to play cricket and still we were putting efforts,” Harmanpreet said. “I know the ground was too wet and there were so many chances to get injured and one of our players got injured also. She was our main bowler and that’s why we were lacking.”With Radha unavailable for India’s bowling innings, Harmanpreet used herself and Shafali Verma and those two overs went for a combined 28. She also had to use more of Deepti and Sneh Rana’s offspin against England’s right-hand batters, in the absence of a left-arm spinner like Radha who could take the ball away from them.”We were one bowler short and the way we were trying to put efforts [meant a lot],” she said. “I am really happy girls were coming forward to give 100%.”

He was appointed in November last year on a contract scheduled to run till the 2022 T20 World Cup

Umar Farooq22-Jun-2021The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and batting coach Younis Khan have mutually agreed to part ways only six months after he accepted a two-year contract. He won’t be travelling with the Pakistan team on their overseas tours of England and West Indies.Both parties did not make any further comment on the reasons for Khan’s departure. He was involved in the recently-concluded camp for the Test squad at the High Performance Centre only for a few days before he returned back to Karachi, ESPNcricinfo understands.Khan was appointed ahead of Pakistan’s tour of England last year to join head coach Misbah ul Haq, bowling coach Waqar Younis and spin-bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed in the team management. That was also his first appointment with the PCB since his retirement in 2017.Khan originally started as a batting consultant last year on a short-term stint. The PCB later integrated him into the coaching system as the batting coach for two years with an option to extend his contract for another term, till the 50-over World Cup in 2023. In addition to his role with the national team, Khan was also appointed to run the Batsmen Development Program at the Hanif Mohammad High Performance Centre in Karachi.Related

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Pakistan had mixed results since he took over as batting coach. In five overseas Tests in England and New Zealand, Pakistan drew two and lost three before beating South Africa across formats at home and in the white-ball formats away, followed by a successful tour to Zimbabwe, which included series wins in the T20Is and Tests.”It is sad to lose an expert of the stature and experience of Younis Khan,” PCB Chief Executive Wasim Khan said. “Following a series of discussions, we both have reluctantly but mutually and amicably agreed that it was time to move in different directions. I want to thank Younis Khan for his contributions during his short stint as the Pakistan men’s national cricket team’s batting coach and hope he will remain available to assist the PCB by sharing his vast knowledge with the emerging cricketers.”Younis had frayed relations with the PCB. Even his integration into the coaching set-up wasn’t smooth after his retirement in 2017. He had turned down the PCB on two previous occasions before eventually accepting the job last year. The board had previously tried to rope him in to work at the development level at the NCA, but those talks fizzled out. Then, in May last year, Khan was close to taking up a role as the Pakistan’s Under-19 coach but that plan, too, did not come to pass. One of the significant problems had to do with finances while the other was with the job profile. The PCB had initially proposed Khan’s role as a mentor and coach but he wanted a wider role, including a say in national selection.

New director of cricket charged with finding successor to Trevor Bayliss as he takes over from Andrew Strauss

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Jan-2019Ashley Giles has played down any suggestion of a rift between himself and Andy Flower on his first day as the ECB’s new director of England cricket, and insists that the difficulties the pair endured as concurrent head coaches of the one-day and Test squads back in 2013-14 does not mean that the principle of split coaching should be ruled out going forward.One of Giles’ first duties, in the wake of his unveiling at Lord’s on Wednesday morning, will be to begin the search for England’s new head coach, with the current incumbent, Trevor Bayliss, due to stand down after this summer’s double-header of the World Cup and the Ashes.Bayliss, who was appointed by Giles’ predecessor Andrew Strauss back in 2015, has indicated that he will not be seeking an extension to his contract, and with England due to fly out to the Caribbean to begin their Test series against West Indies on Friday, Giles knows that a smooth transition will be crucial to England’s fortunes.”I’m hoping to catch up with Trev over the next couple of days down at the airport before they fly off but he’s made it pretty clear he’s leaving,” Giles told Talksport.”Clearly the new coaching structure is going to be front and centre and there’s a lot to think about. There’s been a lot made of two coaches – one specialist under one [head] coach. There are a lot of different options and I need some time to look at everything.””Myself and Andy Flower split the role. I think it can work, absolutely. The challenges of one guy doing it is the workload, especially going into the next couple of years with the World Test Championship and T20 World Cups back-to-back.”Giles was sacked as England’s one-day coach in 2014 after an ignominious defeat to Netherlands sealed their fate in that year’s World T20, with Flower also departing following England’s dismal 5-0 defeat in the Ashes. England have resisted the temptation to split their coaching set-up since, with Peter Moores’ short-lived return giving way to the Bayliss era, in which he has worked closely across all formats with his long-term deputy, Paul Farbrace.However, looking back on the events of that turbulent winter, Giles insisted it was an issue of timing, rather than personality, that sealed the fate of England’s teams. However, he added that crucial lessons would have to be learnt if England are to head down a similar route in the future.”There’s no problem with mine and Andy’s relationship,” he told Sky Sports. “We worked as the two head coaches, but I think the timing was tricky. The cycle we were going through as a team, the unravelling of that side through that Ashes in Australia and of course the Netherlands debacle in Bangladesh when I was T20 head coach at the World Cup.”It was not a great period for both of us, but does that mean that split coaches can’t work? I don’t think so. We need to look at all options going forward, but one thing that myself and Andy are, are different people.”And when you lead environments, there are different cultures and there’s going to be slightly different messaging. That’s not that one’s right and one’s wrong, we’re just different people and that’s something to think about going forward.”Giles was appointed by the ECB last month, after Strauss decided to step down in order to spend more time with his family. Strauss’ wife, Ruth, died in December after a year-long battle with cancer.

With spin set to play a key role at the World Cup, Maxwell could have a vital part to play in providing Australia the balance they want

Andrew McGlashan in Brisbane05-May-2019The closest Glenn Maxwell got to the IPL this year was texting David Warner about his outstanding form, but he is hopeful of being proven right in having opted for county cricket before the World Cup after his brief first spell with Lancashire produced an unexpectedly key role with the ball.While some of his Australian team-mates were in India, Maxwell played one County Championship match and six one-day games. Though his top score was just 35, it was his success with the ball, which included a maiden five-wicket haul in the Championship and eight one-day wickets, that has proved timely.Australia captain Aaron Finch has said that he expected spin to play “huge role” in the World Cup, but it would appear tough for Nathan Lyon and Adam Zampa to both find a starting place in the XI in England with Australia likely to want a third frontline quick in the ranks compared to the balance they had in India and in the UAE. That puts the onus back on Maxwell to be the second spinner and after his role with Lancashire over the last few weeks, his confidence is high.Maxwell bowled his full allocation of ten overs in four of his six limited-overs matches and signed off with 3 for 42 against Durham, which included the wicket of Cameron Bancroft.”Certainly the bowling part I didn’t expect,” Maxwell said during Australia’s pre-World Cup camp in Brisbane. “I was able to get a lot of overs and find a rhythm I probably haven’t had for a while. To get some time at the bowling crease and get some real good feel out of that was nice.””I think with myself and Marcus Stoinis able to be a fifth or sixth bowler, depending on what sort of side we go with, to have those extra overs is really important for Aaron to have at his disposal. If we can be relied on to bowl key overs, even if it’s in the Powerplay or at the end, that’s going to be really important.”It was a great month, and I’m looking forward to going there at the back-end of the World Cup as well. Hopefully I have a successful World Cup and then we can give it a big tick.”Glenn Maxwell of Lancashire claimed a career-best 5-40 against Middlesex at Lord’s•Getty Images

However, Maxwell’s role at this year’s tournament is unlikely to be the same as in 2015, when Australia shunned a frontline spinner in favour of hitting the opposition with pace, leaving Maxwell as the only spin option. In the intervening years, spin has played an increasingly important role for all one-day sides, but Australia had lagged behind until quite recently when they threw their weight behind Zampa and Lyon.Still, it’s with the bat that Maxwell could really light up the World Cup. Having slipped to No. 7 during the home summer, as Australia tried to work out how they wanted the one-day side to play, he emerged with the role that many have long thought was right: floating in the middle order, ready to take on the game situation, the way he did in the last World Cup during which his lone ODI hundred came from No. 5: 102 off 53 balls against Sri Lanka. In India and the UAE, he batted from three to six, closing that run of matches with scores of 71, 98 and 70. They were vital innings for a player who has dealt with a host of mixed messages.”It was probably only after the Dubai series where I felt really comfortable with where my game was at,” he said. “I was able to play three really consistent innings, and all completely different – I went about it in different ways in all three of them. So I think that adaptability and consistency is something that Australian cricket and the fans have always really wanted from me. So to do it in three different ways, at different times, was really pleasing for me personally, but it’s something I need to continue to work on to continue being successful.”I generally work with JL [Justin Langer], just keep asking him what he wants from me, and it’ll get to a point where he’ll say ‘go put ’em on’. He’ll send a message out to Aaron, ask him what he thinks, and that’s how we get to that decision. It was something that I did reasonably well in 2015, so we’re sort of trying to emulate that in this World Cup. Hopefully I can do it similar.”English conditions are not foreign to the Australian squad, but Maxwell’s spell with Lancashire, though early season, also gave him the chance to get a taste of what could be on offer. He was involved in an extraordinary game at Trent Bridge, where Lancashire came within a whisker of chasing down Nottinghamshire’s 417. Australia play two of their group matches, against West Indies and Bangladesh, at Trent Bridge and it was also the venue where their under-strength team was plundered for a world-record 481 by England last year.Some of the domestic one-day games were played to the edges of wicket blocks while the main pitches were protected for the marque games to come, but Maxwell still expects some heavy scoring at the World Cup.”There might be a couple of games that are extremely high-scoring. That was the extreme part at Trent Bridge where you’ve got the corner boundary which is quite a cut off. We should’ve basically chased 417, and that’s the sort of conditions we’re going to be exposed to. It didn’t really spin a whole lot. It wasn’t lightning fast, the wickets, and there wasn’t a lot of swing. It should be interesting for the bowlers over there.”