One hundred percent we can win the T20 World Cup: Maxwell

Glenn Maxwell said the second half of the Indian Premier League 2021 will help him and other Australian players to prepare themselves for the upcoming T20 World Cup, which will be played in the UAE and Oman. 

The likes of Maxwell, Steven Smith, David Warner and Marcus Stoinis all featured in the first leg of IPL 2021 but made themselves unavailable for the white-ball tours of West Indies and Bangladesh. 

 "The thought of going into another hard bubble was just really hard for people. Speaking to the guys that have just come back from Bangladesh and West Indies, they got the question put to them 'if you had another tour in three weeks what would you think?' and they understood why we took that time off,” the Royal Challengers Bangalore recruit told Cricket.com.au. 

“It's not easy going from hard bubble into a two-week quarantine, and then straight back into a hard bubble. That really takes its toll on some of the players." 

Apart from the aforementioned four, Josh Hazlewood (Chennai Super Kings), Dan Christian (Bangalore) and Nathan Ellis (Punjab Kings) are the other World Cup-bound players who will be featuring in the UAE leg of IPL 2021. However, the latter two are not part of Australia's main squad for the T20 World Cup but instead have been named in the reserves.

"Even if they're not playing (IPL matches), they're training with some of the best players in the world and getting used to it and hopefully we're able to hit the ground running in the World Cup. I think it's a really good lead-in for the guys who are going to be over there," said Maxwell.

"To be able to train in those facilities and acclimatise, it's going to be hot and to have that extra month there I think it will be valuable for those guys."

Australia, who are yet to win the T20 World Cup, were dismantled 1-4 in the five-match T20I series against Bangladesh. They suffered the same fate when they travelled to West Indies and have lost their last five bilateral T20I series. However, Maxwell is confident that Australia have what it takes to win the upcoming showpiece event.

"One hundred percent we can win it. I think we've got a great squad, and we've got a lot of experience in there. If you can get one or two players that are running hot at the start of the tournament, it can be hard to stop. I certainly feel like we've got more than enough match-winners in our side to do that."