Glenn Maxwell, who is known in international cricket as the biggest match-winner from the Australian team, was born on October 14, 1988, in Kew, Melbourne. Maxwell started playing junior cricket for South Belgrave Cricket Club. Although you might not know, he initially played as a fast bowler, before moving to bowl off spin. Later, Maxwell joined the Victorian squad in 2009–10 after an injury to Andrew McDonald in November. 

The star-all-rounder attracted national attention in February 2011 after scoring a match-winning 51 from 19 balls in a Ryobi Cup game against Tasmania, the fastest half-century in Australian domestic one-day history and made his first-class debut for Victoria against New South Wales later in the month, taking two wickets and scoring 38 runs on debut. Later, in the following month, he scored his debut first-class century, making 103 runs against South Australia.  In 2023, the Australian all-rounder married his long-time girlfriend Vini Raman in March 2022, they have been blessed with a son born in September 2023.

International Career

After Maxwell’s impressive performance from 2009 to 2011, the all-rounder was selected for Australia's series against Pakistan in the UAE in 2012, impressing the head selector John Inverarity saying that he was "a versatile and lively off-spinning all-rounder and brilliant fieldsman" who "will provide another spin bowler option on the slow, low, turning wickets" expected in the country. Later, he made his ODI debut against Afghanistan, which took place ahead of the matches against Pakistan, where the Scores of 38, 28 and 56 not out in the three ODIs against India’s arch-rivals, made him selected for two of the three Twenty20 International (T20I) matches, where he scored just four on T20I debut and 27 from 20 balls in the final match of the tour.

After his impressive performance in the Pakistan series, he was selected for the 2012 ICC Men's T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka. He got a chance to play in all five of Australia's group stage matches, where he failed to impress the selectors as he took just one wicket and scored only eight runs in the two innings, due to this reason he was dropped from the side for the semi-final against West Indies.

Glenn Maxwell made his Test debut against India, after he scored  51 not out from 35 balls while opening the batting against West Indies in the first ODI of February. In the second match of the series, Maxwell took four wickets. He made his Test debut against India in the second Test at Hyderabad as the team's second spinner, supporting Xavier Doherty with established lead spin bowler Nathan Lyon dropped. However, he just managed to score 13 and 8 runs in the first and second innings respectively, but took 4/127 with the ball.

The 35-year-old cricketer was named in Australia's 15-man squad for the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 in Bangladesh, where in the first match of the tournament, he scored  74 runs from 33 balls against Pakistan. He finished the tournament as Australia's second-highest run-scorer, making 147 runs.

2015 Cricket World Cup

The 2015 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup was one of the best tournaments for the Australian all-rounder, where he was Australia's third-highest run scorer, scoring 324 runs at a batting average of 64.80 runs per innings after being picked up in the 15-man squad, which was to be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand. 

Before entering into the marquee event, he scored 95 runs and took four wickets against England in the final of the warm-up triangular series in early February, which helped to start the main event by scoring 66 from 40 balls in the first match against England and 88 from 39 balls against Afghanistan, respectively. Later in the tournament, he scored his maiden international century, scoring 102 against Sri Lanka at the Sydney Cricket Ground. He reached his century in 51 balls, which was the fastest century by an Australian man in an ODI and the second-fastest in World Cup history.

In September 2016 he scored an unbeaten 145 from 65 deliveries opening the batting at Kandy, at the time the second-highest individual score in men's Twenty20 Internationals. He was named as Cricket Australia's men's ODI Player of 2016.

Glenn Maxwell’s Record

First Australian man to score three T20I centuries

Fastest century by an Australian man in an ODI and the second-fastest in World Cup history.

After playing a match-winning knock of 201 runs against Afghanistan in ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2023, he became the batter to score most runs in an innings (by batting position) 

2nd Highest Career strike rate of 126. 91 in ODIs

2nd Player to pick most catches in ODI’s

Involved in 1st highest partnership of 202 runs for the 8th wicket

First Batsman to score most hundreds in T20I career.

2nd most runs in an innings by batting position (120) runs.

These are the reasons, why Maxwell has been picked in the squad of the ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024, despite going through the worst career form. However, the star all-rounder is a match-winner, who can single-headedly win the match for his team with his incredible all-round ability.