Australia’s Glenn Maxwell announces ODI retirement: ‘I felt like I was letting the team down…’

Maxwell, who first played for Australia in international cricket in an ODI in 2012, was part of the World Cup-winning teams in 2015 and 2023. Maxwell revealed that he had a chat with Australia’s selection committee chair and former teammate George Bailey during the Champions Trophy about his decision.

Maxwell, who endured a torrid time in the ongoing IPL 2025 season with the Punjab Kings before being ruled out with an injury, said that he believed he let the team down in his middle-order role during the 50-overs tournament in Pakistan and the UAE.

“I said to him (Bailey) right then and there, ‘I don’t think I’m going to make that’,” the two-time ODI World Cup winner told the Final Word podcast.

“I think it’s time to start planning for people in my position, to have a crack at it and try and make that spot their own for the for the 2027 World Cup. Hopefully, they get enough of a lead-in where they can have success in that role.”

“My decision to retire from one-day international cricket was probably more on the back of the first couple of games in the Champions Trophy,” he said.

Maxwell joins Marcus Stoinis and Steve Smith in announcing their retirements from ODIs after his compatriots stepped down on either side of the Champions Trophy. However, Maxwell will remain available for selection in T20s.

“I felt like I gave myself a really good opportunity to be fit and ready for those games. The first game in Lahore, we played on a rock-hard outfield. Post that game I was pretty sore.

“We were lucky enough to have a washout against South Africa, where I had a bit more time to have a bit of rest and get myself ready for the next game.

“I started to (realise) that if I don’t have the perfect conditions in 50-over cricket, my body just struggles to get through that. It feels like it’s a tiring affair just to get through – and almost surviving – the 50 overs, let alone being at my best throughout that 50 overs, and then going out there and trying to perform with the bat as well.

“I felt like I was letting the team down a little bit with how my body was reacting to the conditions,” Maxwell revealed.

Maxwell steps away from the format as the batter with the highest strike rate among all ODI players to have recorded at least 2000 runs, holding a stunning 126.70 strike rate in his career.

Maxwell’s mercurial feats were best exemplified by his jaw-dropping 201 not out against Afghanistan at the 2023 World Cup battling cramps.

“This was a moment, like Steve Waugh’s Ashes ton on the last ball of the day, or Michael Bevan’s final four to beat the Windies. One of those events that makes you ask ‘Where were you when…’,” Maxwell wrote in his 2024 book, The Showman.

“It was crazy to think that I now had one of these, a moment when Australia was all on board.”