IPL 2024: Bengaluru batting coach McKenzie backs Maxwell to come out of lean run

Glenn Maxwell has only played six balls in two IPL matches and scored three runs, but Bengaluru batting coach Neil McKenzie believes.

That the Australian all-rounder will find his rhythm sooner rather than later. Maxwell collapsed for a first-ball duck against the Chennai Super Kings, and a return to Chinnaswamy Stadium, a favourite hunting ground of his, did not provide any relief. “You know, that’s cricket. It’s up and down. It’s only two games. We know with Maxie, he’s going to win us a couple of games. “He has made a slower start to the tournament, but we know that he’s going to win games for us later on in the tournament,” McKenzie said in the pre-match press conference.

“It’s not a case of when that will happen. You’re still in early stages (of IPL). In the high-octane T20 cricket, you know, your fortunes change pretty quickly, you know, they change overnight,” he added. The former South African batsman was also pleased to see elite batter Virat Kohli score a match-winning fifty against Punjab in Bengaluru a few days ago. “Virat has been an unbelievable performer for so long. It was a privilege to sit and watch (his fifty). I think just the way he sums up conditions, the way he sort of knows who’s going to bowl whatâ€æhe has been one of our if not the best batter for a very long time.

“So, it was really good to see him hitting the ground running and play a really important knock for the side after that two months of no cricket. So, you can always trust him to put the team first,” said McKenzie. McKenzie stated that the good performances of Indian hitters such as Dinesh Karthik, Anuj Rawat, and Mahipal Lomror have given RCB a lot of confidence and flexibility without taking away responsibility from the top-order batsmen.