Australia's Glenn Maxwell in action during the ICC Champions Trophy (AP Photo / File)

IND vs AUS Champions Trophy 2025: Glenn Maxwell has played some of the most memorable innings in white-ball cricket, but his game is not built around consistency.

He is an impact player, an x-factor who can't be expected to contribute with the bat in every game. But sometimes, when he is in for a good time and not necessarily a long time, his team management may question his game-reading ability. One guesses they have made their peace with it over the years.

On Tuesday, Steve Smith and Alex Carey had taken Australia to a position from where they could launch towards a score of 280 or more.

When the skipper got out, there were enough overs left for Maxwell to play a proper innings, get set before launching in the final overs.

Conventional logic, however, rarely applies to Maxwell. He gave himself only three balls, two from Mohammed Shami and one from Axar Patel, before he launched the left-arm spinner over deep square-leg for six. With more than 12 overs left, he could have then put his head down and played the occasional big shot. As his normal scoring rate when set is more than quick enough.

But he went for an across-the-line hoick next ball, to be bowled.

It was the cue for India to come back in the game with a vengeance and when Australia were bowled out with three balls left for 265, they would have felt they left a few runs out there. It exposed the lower order and ensured that Carey couldn't bat with the freedom he would have liked. The likes of Ben Dwarshius couldn't be expected to counter the wiles and mystery of Varun Chakravarthy when the need of the hour was acceleration. If two genuine batsmen had been in the middle in the end overs, they could have even threatened the 300-run mark too.