After mental health break, Glenn Maxwell trains with Victoria, not ‘far away’ from playing

Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has made a good progress in his comeback from a mental health break as he took part in training with the Victoria squad at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Thursday.

Maxwell, who stepped away from cricket citing mental health issues during T20I series against Sri Lanka in October, has since played three club games and has taken part in some aspects of Victoria’s Shield program. Victorian batsmen Will Pucovski and Nic Maddinson also took a break from playing in order to boost their mental well-being.

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“I think he is doing everything he needs to do ... when he is ready to come back (he will),” teammate Marcus Harris was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

“I’m not sure if it is this week or Big Bash, but he’s not far away I think.”

Harris further said it is upto Maxwell to decide when he feels to return to the game on a full-time basis.

“I think those sort of guys need some space. I think they’ve got everyone hounding them about what’s going on and what they’re doing,” he said.

“They are adults. Maxi has been really good and all the guys dealing with stuff have been very good and we just put our arm around them and support them,” he added.

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India skipper Virat Kohli had also backed Maxwell after he took break from international cricket on account of mental health issues, saying what the Australian all-rounder had done by accepting the concern is “remarkable’.

England all-rounder Moeen Ali had stated that there’s too much of cricket being played at the moment because of which players are becoming mentally tired.

“There’s so much cricket played at the moment. Mentally, you become tired. You feel drained up doing the same warm-up and other things while playing the game,” Moeen told IANS.