Glenn Maxwell Profile: Australia Cricketer, Career Stats, Records and Retirement

Glenn Maxwell Profile: Australia’s Most Unorthodox Match-Winner

Glenn Maxwell is an Australian batting all-rounder who played 7 Tests, 149 ODIs and 130 T20Is between 2012 and 2026, scored 7,226 international runs and took 136 international wickets with his off-spin. He retired from T20 International cricket on 2 November 2026, having left ODIs in June 2025, and continues to play Big Bash League cricket for the Melbourne Stars.

Known universally as “The Big Show”, Maxwell built a career on shots that coaching manuals do not contain and on an ability to change a match in fifteen minutes. His unbeaten 201 against Afghanistan at the 2023 World Cup — made from 91 for 7, on one working pair of legs — is widely regarded as the greatest ODI innings ever played.

Who Is Glenn Maxwell?

Glenn James Maxwell, born 14 October 1988 in Kew, Victoria, is a right-handed middle-order batter and right-arm off-spinner who represented Australia in all three international formats. He won the ODI World Cup in 2015 and 2023 and the T20 World Cup in 2021, and holds the joint record for the most T20I centuries with five.

Glenn Maxwell Profile: Key Details

Full name	Glenn James Maxwell
Date of birth	14 October 1988
Birthplace	Kew, Victoria, Australia
Age	38
Nickname	The Big Show
Batting style	Right-handed
Bowling style	Right-arm off break
Role	Batting all-rounder
International debut	ODI — 25 August 2012 v Afghanistan
Test debut	2 March 2013 v India, Hyderabad
Domestic team	Victoria (2010-11 to 2025-26)
BBL team	Melbourne Stars (contracted to the end of 2027-28)
IPL teams	Delhi, Mumbai Indians, Kings XI / Punjab Kings, Royal Challengers Bengaluru
Retired	ODIs — June 2025 · T20Is — 2 November 2026

Glenn Maxwell Career Stats in All Formats

Format	Mat	Runs	Avg	SR	HS	100s	50s	Wkts	Best
Tests	7	339	26.07	59.47	104	1	0	8	4/127
ODIs	149	3,990	33.81	126.71	201*	4	23	77	4/40
T20Is	130	2,897	28.97	154.42	145*	5	12	51	3/10
IPL	141	2,819	23.89	155.15	95	0	18	41	2/15
BBL	129	3,317	34.20	154.35	154*	2	21	47	3/26

International and BBL figures as published by Cricket Australia; IPL figures through the 2025 season.

Two numbers in that table explain the whole career. The averages are ordinary — 33.81 in ODIs, 28.97 in T20Is, numbers you would not look at twice. The strike rates are not: 126.71 and 154.42, sustained across 279 white-ball internationals. Maxwell was never a batter you judged by average, and anyone who did missed the point of him.

Early Career and International Debut

Maxwell announced himself in February 2011 with 51 from 19 balls for Victoria, then the fastest half-century in Australian domestic one-day cricket. A first-class century followed the same season. The template was set early: a player who scored faster than anyone around him and divided opinion while doing it.

His ODI debut came against Afghanistan in Sharjah in August 2012, his T20I debut against Pakistan a fortnight later. Within a year he had a Test cap too, debuting against India at Hyderabad in March 2013 — the same year Mumbai Indians paid US$1 million for him at the IPL auction, making him the most expensive buy of that auction before he had played a single IPL innings of note.

That contract shaped how he was discussed for a decade. Maxwell arrived with a price tag that implied a superstar and a game that looked, to traditionalists, like improvisation for its own sake.

The 201*: Maxwell’s Defining Innings

On 7 November 2023 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Australia were chasing 292 against Afghanistan to secure a World Cup semi-final place. They were 49 for 4 when Maxwell walked in, facing a hat-trick ball from Azmatullah Omarzai. They were soon 91 for 7.

What followed does not have a real comparison in one-day cricket. Maxwell made 201 not out from 128 balls, with 21 fours and 10 sixes, and shared an unbroken eighth-wicket stand of 202 with Pat Cummins, whose contribution was 12 not out from 68 balls. Australia won by three wickets with 19 balls to spare.

He did it while cramping so badly through the back half of the innings that he could barely run between the wickets and later said he had considered retiring hurt. For long stretches he simply stopped running and hit boundaries instead, because that was the only scoring option his body would allow.

It remains the first double century by a batter below the top three at a World Cup, and it is the innings that settled the long argument about whether Maxwell was a serious cricketer or an entertainer. He appears on our list of double centuries in ODIs as the only player to have made one from that far down the order.

Records and Milestones

• Fastest World Cup century. 40 balls against the Netherlands in Delhi on 25 October 2023, nine quicker than the previous record. He finished with 106 from 44 balls.
• Five T20I centuries, a joint world record shared with Rohit Sharma.
• 201* v Afghanistan — the highest ODI score by a No. 6 or lower, and the second-fastest ODI double hundred.
• Highest individual BBL score: 154 not out against Hobart Hurricanes in 2021-22.
• 145* from 65 balls at Kandy in September 2016, at the time the second-highest T20I score ever made.
• Centuries in all three international formats — only the second Australian to do it, after his Test hundred against India in 2017.
• 278 for Victoria against New South Wales in November 2017, his maiden first-class double hundred.
• Three world titles: the 2015 and 2023 ODI World Cups and the 2021 T20 World Cup.
• Australia’s third-highest T20I run-scorer with 2,897, behind David Warner and Aaron Finch.

Glenn Maxwell in the IPL

Maxwell’s IPL record is the most argued-over part of his career, and the numbers explain why. Across 141 matches he made 2,819 runs at 23.89, striking at 155.15, with 18 fifties and no hundreds.

A player with that strike rate and that many fifties who never once converted is a genuine statistical oddity. So are the seasons themselves, which swung between extremes rather than settling into a level. In 2014 he made 552 runs at 34.50 for Kings XI Punjab, the third-highest aggregate of the tournament, and looked like the most destructive batter in the competition. In 2018 at Delhi he managed 142 runs at an average of 14 without a single fifty. In 2021 he was Royal Challengers Bangalore’s leading scorer with 513 runs.

He also took 41 IPL wickets, which is the part of his franchise value most often forgotten. A middle-order batter who can bowl four overs of off-spin is worth a team place on nights when his bat does nothing.

He withdrew from the IPL 2026 auction in December 2025, bringing a fourteen-year association with the tournament to a close.

Big Bash League and Melbourne Stars

The BBL is where Maxwell’s numbers look most like the player people remember. 129 matches, 3,317 runs at 34.20, a strike rate of 154.35, and 47 wickets — a better average than he managed in any international white-ball format, at the same tempo.

His 154 not out against Hobart Hurricanes in 2021-22 remains the highest individual score in BBL history. He was named BBL Player of the Series in 2024-25.

The one gap is a title. Maxwell has been a Melbourne Stars player since 2012-13 and has never won the competition, and his contract through to the end of the 2027-28 season is explicitly about chasing one. The Stars open their campaign against Adelaide at the MCG on 18 December.

Why Did Glenn Maxwell Retire?

Maxwell retired from ODI cricket on 2 June 2025, citing his body and the length of the road to the next 50-over World Cup.

The T20I retirement, announced on 2 November 2026, was slower in coming. His last T20I was against Oman on 20 February 2026 at the T20 World Cup, a tournament where he was the oldest player in the Australian squad and where the campaign disappointed. Australia then toured Bangladesh with a younger group who performed well, and the direction of travel became clear.

He was explicit that nobody pushed him out. “There wasn’t any pressure from [Australia team management],” he said on the Final Word podcast, describing a decision he and the selectors had agreed to “leave the door open” on after the World Cup. The deciding factor was physical: “It’s probably a time where I need to spend a little bit more time investing in the body.”

He had hoped for a farewell match at the MCG and did not get one — he was not selected for the home T20I series against England. He also played his last game for Victoria without a public send-off, which he admitted was harder than he had expected.

What Made Maxwell Different

Most unorthodox batters are unorthodox because they cannot play straight. Maxwell could. He had a conventional technique underneath everything, which is why he made a Test hundred and a first-class 278, and the reverse sweeps and switch hits were options layered on top of it rather than substitutes for it.

The second thing was range. Maxwell could play a boundary off any length to any part of the ground, which made conventional field-setting close to pointless. Captains ended up defending areas rather than shot types, and that is a very different problem.

The third was the off-spin, which was never going to win Test matches but was consistently useful in white-ball cricket — 128 international wickets across ODIs and T20Is at an economy that let captains use him as a genuine fifth bowler rather than a part-timer.

The cost of all this was consistency, and he never pretended otherwise. A batter who plays that way will get out cheaply more often than one who does not. The trade was that when it came off, nobody else in world cricket could produce what he produced.

In October 2019 he stepped away from the game to deal with his mental health, at a time when very few male cricketers had done so publicly. It is a part of his record that matters as much as any innings.

Frequently Asked Questions

How old is Glenn Maxwell?

Glenn Maxwell is 38. He was born on 14 October 1988 in Kew, Victoria, Australia.

Has Glenn Maxwell retired?

He has retired from international cricket. He left ODIs in June 2025 and announced his T20I retirement on 2 November 2026. He continues to play Big Bash League cricket for the Melbourne Stars under a contract that runs to the end of 2027-28.

What is Glenn Maxwell’s highest score?

201 not out, made from 128 balls against Afghanistan at the Wankhede Stadium on 7 November 2023 during the ICC Cricket World Cup. His highest T20I score is 145 not out and his highest first-class score is 278.

How many centuries does Glenn Maxwell have?

Four in ODIs, five in T20Is and one in Tests. His five T20I hundreds are a joint world record with Rohit Sharma. He has no IPL century despite 18 IPL fifties.

Why is Glenn Maxwell called The Big Show?

The nickname comes from his high-risk, high-reward batting — reverse sweeps, switch hits and innings that could change a match inside a few overs.

How many wickets has Glenn Maxwell taken?

136 in international cricket: 77 in ODIs, 51 in T20Is and 8 in Tests. His best figures are 4 for 40 in ODIs, 3 for 10 in T20Is and 4 for 127 in Tests.

What is Glenn Maxwell’s IPL record?

141 matches, 2,819 runs at an average of 23.89 and a strike rate of 155.15, with 18 fifties, a highest score of 95 and 41 wickets. He played for Delhi, Mumbai Indians, Kings XI / Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and withdrew from the 2026 auction.

Which World Cups has Glenn Maxwell won?

Three. The ODI World Cups of 2015 and 2023, and the T20 World Cup of 2021.

What was Maxwell’s fastest century?

Forty balls, against the Netherlands in Delhi on 25 October 2023 — the fastest century in Cricket World Cup history. He finished on 106 from 44 balls.

Final Word

Maxwell finishes with 7,226 international runs at an average that will never flatter him and a strike rate that explains why none of that mattered. He was the most watchable Australian cricketer of his generation and, for a long time, the most frustrating, often in the same innings.

The 201 settles it. Cricket produces great innings regularly; it produces maybe one or two in a century where a player wins a match that is already lost, while physically breaking down, by inventing shots. Australia were 91 for 7 chasing 292 and he simply decided they were not going to lose.

For profiles of other modern greats, see our Brian Lara profile, and our cricket schedule has what is on next.

Statistics verified against Cricket Australia’s player record. Retirement details from cricket.com.au; the Afghanistan match detail from ESPNcricinfo’s match report; the World Cup century record from the ICC.