Glenn Maxwell Retires From International Cricket After 14 Years

Glenn Maxwell has announced his retirement from international cricket, ending a 14-year Australia career that included two ODI World Cup titles and a T20 World Cup win. The 38-year-old all-rounder confirmed the decision on Monday, November 2, on the Final Word podcast. He has also stepped away from first-class and List A cricket. However, he will keep playing in the Big Bash League (BBL).

Why Glenn Maxwell retirement came now

Maxwell had already quit one-day internationals in June 2025, but he stayed available for T20 internationals. He then played at the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka in February. Australia’s last match there, against Oman, turned out to be his final international game.

Since then, the selectors have moved on. They left Maxwell out of the T20 series in Bangladesh in June. He was also missing from the squad named on Monday for the coming series against England.

“A little bit sad and a little bit inevitable too,” Maxwell said of his decision. He added that there had been no pressure from team management. In fact, he said, the talks with selectors before and after the World Cup had been “pretty open-ended”.

He admitted he had hoped for a farewell match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Still, he said he “completely” understood why Australia wanted to give younger players a chance. According to The Express Tribune, Maxwell also wants to manage a knee problem and protect his body for the tournaments he has left.

A career built on big moments

Maxwell played 286 matches for Australia across all three formats after his ODI debut against Afghanistan in 2012. Above all, fans will remember him as one of the most inventive white-ball batters of his era.

His best-known innings came in India at the 2023 ODI World Cup. Australia needed 292 to beat Afghanistan but had slumped to 91 for 7. Maxwell then scored 201 not out from 128 balls to win the match. Many fans still rate it among the greatest one-day innings ever played.

He also hit the winning runs in the 2021 T20 World Cup final, which gave Australia its first title in the format. In addition, he won the ODI World Cup twice.

Glenn Maxwell’s numbers

T20 internationals: 130 matches, 2,897 runs at a strike rate of 154.42, five centuries and 51 wickets.
ODIs: 149 matches and 3,990 runs.
Tests: 7 matches and 339 runs, with his only Test hundred coming against India at Ranchi in 2017.

His five T20I hundreds equal the men’s record shared with India’s Rohit Sharma. Moreover, he leaves as Australia’s third-highest run-scorer in T20Is, behind David Warner and Aaron Finch.

Tributes from team-mates

Former captain Aaron Finch led the tributes. He called Maxwell “one of the most destructive players the game has ever seen” and “one of the most innovative of our generation”.

Maxwell’s value went beyond batting. He was also a useful off-spinner and an outstanding fielder. That all-round skill made him a sought-after player in franchise leagues, including the Indian Premier League.

Even so, his career had quieter chapters. Test cricket never became his stage. He also took a break from the game in 2019 to look after his mental health, a step he later wrote about openly in his autobiography.

What comes next for Maxwell

Maxwell will now focus on franchise cricket. ESPNcricinfo and The Express Tribune report that he remains available for the Melbourne Stars in the BBL. The Tribune adds that his contract runs until the 2027-28 season.

Looking back, Maxwell said he was grateful for his time with Australia. He added that, as a young Victoria player around 2009, he would have happily accepted such a career if anyone had offered it.

For fans in Pakistan and across Asia, he leaves as one of the most watchable overseas stars of the T20 era.