Not Steve Smith! Shane Watson Backs This All-Rounder To Be Australia’s Standout Player At Champions Trophy 2025
Former all-rounder Shane Watson believes the current ODI World Cup holders Australia will pose a major threat at the ongoing Champions Trophy 2025 despite a host of injury woes. Watson has backed Glenn Maxwell to be Australia’s most crucial player at the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy 2025.
Watson, who is one of the four Event Ambassadors, believes that Maxwell’s recent form puts him in position to dominate the tournament.
“The stand-out player for me is Glenn Maxwell. With what I have seen recently, especially in the Big Bash, I believe he has some of his best cricket in front of him across the next two or three years and I would be very surprised if he does not dominate this Champions Trophy,” Watson wrote in his ICC column.
The 36-year-old Maxwell had finished the 2024-25 Big Bash League as the fourth-highest run-getter, amassing 325 runs from nine innings at a strike rate of 186.78. The fiery striker of the ball had also been pivotal to Australia’s ODI World Cup 2023, where he finished with 400 runs from nine games.
While Watson noted that Maxwell’s role in the Australian batting posed a threat to his overall consistency, the former Champions Trophy winner believes the stars are aligning for him to deliver big.
“He had that incredible innings against Afghanistan in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, where he scored a double century, but he has struggled to be consistent at times. That’s the nature of his role in the team,” he said.
“However, it now just feels like it has all fallen into place for him, and that’s with everything in his life, not just his cricket, so I think he will play a pivotal part,” he added.
Notably, Australia are missing some major names in their Champions Trophy squad with skipper Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Marsh having been ruled out owing to injury.
However, Watson believes the Steve Smith-led side will still be the team to beat.
“I think Australia will be very hard to beat, even if their bowling squad is not quite as experienced as they might otherwise have been,” he said.
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