NEW DELHI: Paceman Josh Hazlewood anticipates that Glenn Maxwell will be ready to face Bangladesh in Australia's final round-robin match at the World Cup this weekend, despite the challenging nature of his remarkable innings against Afghanistan on Tuesday.
Maxwell endured the intense discomfort of full-body cramps at Wankhede Stadium while crafting an unbeaten double century, a performance hailed as the greatest one-day international innings of all time by cricketing luminaries.
The unexpected three-wicket triumph propelled Australia into a semi-final against South Africa, rendering Saturday's encounter with Bangladesh in Pune a dead rubber. However, Hazlewood believes Maxwell will still take the field for the match.
"Yeah, I think so," the bowler stated. "It's just about getting your hydration and your weight back to where it should have been before."
"I don't think he'll do too much in between now and then, and it's a couple of days. So hopefully, fingers crossed he's all right."
Maxwell, who scored 201 off 128 balls, revealed that he had contemplated retirement at 147 after succumbing to cramps in both the legs and experiencing a back spasm while lying prone on the pitch.
"He went down like he was shot, lying down like a dead man on the floor," recounted team physiotherapist Nick Jones on Cricket Australia's website. "I got out there, and it was his right calf, his left hammy (hamstring) and a few other areas that were all cramping at the same time."
"While we were giving him a bit of a stretch out, it was in that moment he said, 'I'm done here. I can't keep going. I need to come off and retire'."
Despite the struggles, Maxwell got back up and, relying on his natural batting instincts, completed the extraordinary innings.
"The way it played out from there was absolutely amazing and well beyond anything I expected he could do," added Jones. "I think we made the right call in terms of keeping him out there."
(With Reuters inputs)
