Another IPL season isn't going to plan for the maverick Maxwell. ©BCCI
Writing in the foreword to Glenn Maxwell's autobiography, The Showman, Virat Kohli laid out the thinking behind bringing the all-rounder to Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Maxwell wouldn't just bolster the middle order, Kohli believed, but he would thrive at the "chance to stop being the centre of attention" - a freedom he hadn't enjoyed since his breakout 2014 campaign with Punjab Kings.
The equation was simple: shield Maxwell from the glare and he would likely find himself again. Just as he had in 2014, when he set the IPL alight with over 500 runs at a strike rate of 188. That season, Maxwell was pure electricity, perhaps because nobody expected him to be. Not after five IPL caps across two seasons for two different teams and no international hundreds.
At RCB, the plan seemed to work. In 2021, Maxwell delivered 513 runs, his second-best season tally, RCB's highest that year and the fifth-most among all batters. The team made it into the PlayOffs as Maxwell flourished with six half-centuries, another season record for him, as the burden of attention lay with bio-bubbles and the usual suspects, Kohli and AB de Villiers.
But once you have caught the eye, it stays fixed and soon enough, the whole world is watching. Over the next two seasons, Maxwell's returns faded. And in 2024, they collapsed. In 10 matches, he scored just 52 runs, a slump so pronounced that it prompted him to go to the management and
