Maxwell: I’ve never been better

GLENN Maxwell has declared himself in the best form of his career after dominating with bat and ball in Australia’s Twenty20 victory over England in Hobart.

Maxwell smashed an unbeaten 103 from 58 balls and took three wickets on Wednesday night as the hosts claimed a five-wicket tri-series win at Bellerive Oval.

The Victorian was also at the crease to guide his country across the line when he made 40 not out during Australia’s rain-affected win over New Zealand at the weekend.

It continued what has been a brilliant summer for Maxwell despite remarkably being overlooked for Ashes Test duties and all but one of Australia’s one-day matches.

He is the leading run scorer in the Sheffield Shield with 590 runs at 73.75 headlined by an epic 278 against NSW. The 29year-old was also among the BBL’s best-performed batsmen, scoring 299 runs at 37.37 for Melbourne Stars.

Australia’s next white-ball assignment is a five-match ODI tour of England in June with selectors keen to lock down the team to contest the 2019 World Cup.

And Maxwell, who is a strong chance to be named state cricketer of the year at Monday night’s Allan Border Medal count, believes he will be hard to overlook for the tour if he maintains form.

“This has been my best summer, obviously for output of runs and consistency,” he said.

“There’s still a few years left in my career so hopefully I can take it to another level.”

Maxwell’s T20 century drew praise from Steve Smith, who had criticised his training standards in explaining the decision to overlook him from Australia’s ODI squad last month.