Steve Smith wants Glenn Maxwell to use Matador Cup as platform for ODI comeback

Australia captain Steve Smith has said that he wants to see all-rounder Glenn Maxwell “dominate” the Matador One-Day Cup as he tries to crawl his way back into the nation’s ODI outfit.Maxwell announced his return to international cricket in grand fashion earlier this month by smashing his way to his first T20I century and a quickfire half-ton in the 2-0 series win in Sri Lanka.

The two innings showed what a prolific batsman he is in the shorter version of the game. But his poor run in the 50-over form saw him get dumped for the five-match ODI series which preceded the T20s.

Maxwell has also not been picked in the squad scheduled to travel to South Africa for a lone ODI against Ireland and a five-game series against the Proteas. The selectors have opted to keep James Faulkner who is still injured despite the availability of Maxwell.The right-hander will now have the whole Matador Cup to prove his mettle and that is what precisely the skipper wants to see.

"For now we’d like to see him really dominate the Matador Cup,” Smith was quoted by the Cricket Australia website. “I want to see him do extremely well in that. There’s no reason why he can’t be the leading run-scorer, take plenty of wickets, and do well for Victoria. "Hopefully he can have a good Matador Cup and keep putting his name up there."

Maxwell smashed an unconquered 145 in the first T20 in Pallekele and then followed it up with another scintillating 29-ball 66 in the second T20 which was held in Colombo. The fiery right-hander had opened the innings on both occasions and while it is improbable that he will get to open again when Aaron Finch makes a comeback his place in the side is quite certain.

But getting a recall for the ODIs will be tough for the 27-year-old. The Australians dominated Sri Lanka in the format recently, a feat they could not achieve in the Test matches.

But Smith says some brilliant performances in the Matador Cup will make Maxwell "irresistible" to the selectors. "He (Maxwell) performed very well in the T20s in Sri Lanka, but the one-day guys played incredibly well. We won that series 4-1," Smith said.

"I think the selectors have openly come out and said they want some more consistency from Glenn. "If you look back at his last 15 or 20 one-day games (for Australia) we probably haven’t seen that from him. From my point of view I’d like to see him have a very good Matador Cup and make it irresistible for the selectors to pick him."