Glenn Maxwell retires from international cricket
An era of dominance in the shorter formats of international cricket came to an end as Glenn Maxwell has called time on his storied career with Australia.
Maxwell, who retired from ODIs last year, had kept himself available for T20Is. He was part of Australia’s squad at the 2026 T20 World Cup, where they made a shock group-stage exit, and his final international appearance came against Oman in February.
Speaking on the Final Word podcast, Maxwell said, “We probably had numerous discussions before and after the T20 World Cup. And it was it was pretty open ended. There wasn’t any pressure from that side [Australia team management], and we decided to sort of leave the door open. There was a couple of series that were coming up; they were going to look to the future, and we saw that in Bangladesh with guys getting their opportunity and performing really well.”
He added, “I suppose, a small hope or discussion that I might have been able to potentially get a send-off game at the MCG. But I can completely understand the direction they’re going with this squad. There’s going to be a lot of change, I suppose, over the next 12 to 24 months with the Olympics coming up [in 2028], and they’ve got to make sure that they get their eyeballs on a few young guys coming through and making sure that they’re getting exposed to international pressure that you probably can’t always get from a BBL fixture.”
Maxwell had hoped to sign off in Australia’s T20I against England at the MCG on November 21st, but was left out of the squad as the selectors turned to youth. He is also stepping away from first-class and List A cricket for Victoria, though he will keep playing franchise cricket around the world, including for Melbourne in Australia's premier franchise league.
Maxwell ends a glittering career with 2,897 T20I runs from 130 matches at a strike rate of 154.42. His five T20I centuries are a joint world record, shared with Rohit Sharma. He was just as destructive in ODIs, scoring 3,990 runs from 149 matches at an average of 33.81.
His unbeaten 201 against Afghanistan at the 2023 ODI World Cup is still regarded as one of the finest ODI innings ever played. In all, he played 286 internationals for Australia, scoring 7,226 runs and taking 136 wickets, and won three World Cups: the 2015 and 2023 ODI World Cups and the 2021 T20 World Cup.
RCB fans will remember Maxwell fondly, with the franchise having signed him for ₹14.25 crore ahead of IPL 2021. He immediately became the engine of the middle order alongside Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. He scored 513 runs in his first season, including six fifties, as RCB reached the playoffs. In 2023, he made 400 runs at a staggering strike rate of 183.49.
Across four seasons at RCB from 2021 to 2024, Maxwell helped the side reach the playoffs three times and was a handy off-spin option with the ball. He was released ahead of the 2025 Mega Auction.
