‘It’s been great fun batting at the top’ - Maxwell on his stint as opener in West Indies series

‌Australia completed a whitewash in the five-match T20I series against the West Indies with a three-wicket win at Warner Park in Basseterre on Tuesday. The visitors dominated the duel with Glenn Maxwell’s promotion as the makeshift opener in four games being a key takeaway for them in their build-up to the T20 World Cup next year.

With Travis Head not available, Maxwell was given the responsibility to open the batting, with the explosive batter coming good in two of the four games. He scored a seven-ball 20 in the third game before smashing six sixes and a four to make 47 off 18 balls in the next to power the Aussies to blistering starts in their successful chases of 200-plus targets in both matches. However, the all-rounder expected that he would go back to the middle order in the upcoming matches as and when Head comes back into the side.

"It's been great fun being at the top, but I'm sure I'm just warming Heady's seat until he comes back," Maxwell said. "I think the way we're probably going to set up our T20 side heading forward is you've got Travis up the top, you've got Mitch Marsh, who is captaining us brilliantly at the moment. Ingo (Josh Inglis) is doing a great job at No.3 and the rest of the order falls into place around that.”

Maxwell’s decent showing at the top allows Australia to be flexible with their batting lineup and unlocks another option at the top with the middle-order already packed with big hitters. Cameron Green finished as the top run-getter in the series with 205 runs at an average of 68.33 and a strike rate of 164. Tim David and Mitchell Owen also excelled in their roles in the middle-order, striking at 269.38 and 192.30, respectively.

“We've got some unbelievable power hitting at the moment, we've seen some guys really put their hand up - Tim David, Mitch Owen and Cameron Green - throughout the middle,” Maxwell explained.

“They're three pretty big blokes with big reach, and they hit the ball an absolute mile, so it's great to have those guys with that extra bit of power in the middle-order. It's not something we've had an abundance of over the years, and to have that at our disposal at the moment is pretty exciting.

"Greeny in this series has been absolutely outstanding," Maxwell said. "We're seeing him turn into a really consistent and solid T20 player, and it's just so exciting for Australian cricket to see these guys with this sort of power, and it's going to be dangerous for a lot of teams heading forward."