Maxwell credits Finch for his stellar performance against England

Maxwell, whose ODI career was hanging by a thread after the 2019 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup, made a resounding impression in the recently concluded one-day series against England, making scores of 50 or more - 77(59) and 108(90) - in two of the three matches.

In the series decider on 16 September in Manchester, Maxwell slammed 108, stitching together 212 runs with Alex Carey, an Australian record partnership for the sixth wicket.

Maxwell, who became the fastest to 3000 ODI runs in terms of number of balls faced, credited Australia skipper Aaron Finch, also a fellow Victorian with whom he trained during the lockdown period, for his outstanding series.

"Every time you get a chance to play in this Australian team you take whatever role you're given," Maxwell said. "The really good thing is, even in the lockdown period, I was training with Finchy [Finch] and we were able to talk about my role and certain things.

"I just had so much clarity on what he expected of me in that role and I think that gave me really good clarity out there.

"I was able to take the game on with the clarity he gave me before the tournament started and was able to ride on that momentum as well. Just knowing I had the backing of him is awesome."

Australia's series win puts them just 10 points behind England in the ICC Men's World Cup Super League table while playing half the number of games as the current world champions.

Maxwell called the series win a huge "stepping stone" for Australia with the 2023 ICC Men's ODI World Cup in mind.

"To take them down on home soil when they have been playing pretty consistent cricket over here and for us to start our summer off after a long time in lockdown with a series win against them was pretty incredible for this group.

"We've worked so hard since coming together and it is just great that everyone could do the work back at home and when we got over here throughout the practice matches and training to get ourselves up to take on the world's best and beat them on their home soil."