"Unfair on Maxi to say he's not a specialist spinner" - George Bailey on Glenn Maxwell ahead of 2023 World Cup

Australian men's team's chief selector George Bailey asserted that they consider Glenn Maxwell as one of their frontline spinners heading into the 2023 World Cup. The former middle-order batter reckons Maxwell's bowling record in white-ball cricket is very handy and has backed him to produce the goods in the showpiece event.

While the 34-year-old failed with the bat in the third ODI against India in Rajkot, he showcased his bowling prowess to clinch a 66-run victory for Australia. His off-spin yielded four wickets, including that of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, to finish with career-best figures of 10-0-40-4.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Bailey expressed confidence in Adam Zampa and Maxwell to carry the spin-bowling duties. The retired batter also feels Australia have plenty of options as far as quick bowlers and all-rounders go.

As quoted by ESPN Cricinfo, he stated:

"Think it's unfair on Maxi to say he's not a specialist spinner. Think his white-ball spinning record is pretty handy and you could very much consider him a frontline option. We certainly consider that we have two frontline spinners within our first-choice XI.

"More broadly across the squad, when you are limited to 15 [players], there are compromises that you have to weigh up [and] which way to want to take a risk. That was all the considerations that we had to take. We certainly think that Zamps and Maxi can do a really good job for us as the frontline spinners and we've still got plenty of options for quicks and back-up allrounders."

Australia made a late change to their squad on Thursday (September 28), swapping Ashton Agar for Marnus Labuschagne due to the former's calf strain.

"Glenn's been so dynamic across his one-day career" - George Bailey

George Bailey. (Image Credits: Twitter)

With Maxwell's injury still not fully healed, Bailey hinted that he could be put in positions on the field where it's not very demanding. He added:

"Glenn's been so dynamic across his one-day career, not only his ability with bat and ball but just the positions he puts himself in the field. So there's been a high workload there.

"There may be games here - and not just this tournament, but maybe Glenn for the rest of his career - where he doesn't have to go to the hot spots, or he might have some games where we can find some quieter spots for him in the field. That's something we'll weigh up from game to game."

Australia's World Cup campaign starts on October 8 in Chennai against India.