Maxwell finished with better figures than Zampa in the first game ©Getty
"Well, I think I was the No. 1 spinner in 2015 when we won it, so I've been bumped back to number two."
Glenn Maxwell had one of those typically beaming smiles on his face as he shot down in jest a question about whether he thought he was a 'specialist spinner'. In his defence, he did out-bowl Adam Zampa, the official specialist spinner in the squad, during Australia's opening World Cup game in Chennai. To his credit, Maxwell was indeed the lead spinner during his team's title-winning campaign at home in 2015. More importantly, he's been bowling as well as he's ever done in the lead-up to the tournament this time around.
There was the match-winning spell of 4/40 in Rajkot a couple of weeks ago, followed by a pretty impressive spell against Pakistan in the warm-up game in Hyderabad last Tuesday (October 3). And in very dewy conditions at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday (October 8), Maxwell managed to hold his own during the Virat Kohli-KL Rahul partnership, going at only 4.10 an over
