IPL 2021: Glenn Maxwell repays Virat Kohli's faith in tournament opener

Glenn Maxwell of Royal Challengers Bangalore plays a shot during Vivo Indian Premier League 2021 match between Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore, at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Pic/PTI

A change in Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise seems to have worked wonders for Australian batting all-rounder Glenn Maxwell, at least going by his show for his new team Royal Challengers Bangalore in the tournament opener against Mumbai Indians here on Friday.

The hard-hitting right-handed batsman, who had failed to impress with the bat while turning out for the Punjab franchise in IPL 2020, hit a 28-ball 39 (4x3, 6x2) to help RCB clinch a 2-wicket thriller against Mumbai in the opening match of the season on Friday. The highest that the Aussie all-rounder got last season was just 32.

Maxwell had failed to hit a six in the whole of last season. He faced 106 deliveries across 13 matches but couldn't send a single shot over the boundary for a six. He hit just nine fours and aggregated just 108 runs at a strike rate of 101.88 and an average of 15.42.

No wonder, Punjab Kings released him ahead of this season's IPL mini-auction. However, RCB picked him up for a whopping Rs 14.25 crore with skipper Virat Kohli showing immense faith in the Aussie. "He's a good guy, we've caught up in the past as well when I was in Australia on a tour. He's just very happy to be in RCB and I see a different energy about him this time," Kohli said in a video uploaded by the franchise on its Youtube page.

"We wanted Maxi, specifically targeted him at the auction in February. You obviously feel great when things end up happening to where you thought they would," Kohli said. And Maxwell, pushed up the order to bat at No. 4, responded with a nice cameo, hitting two sixes and three fours.

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