Glenn Maxwell is standing diagonally behind the Australia team nets. Arms folded, his body straight, the cap worn backwards on the head, dark shades covering the eyes which are presumably fixed on what's going on in the nets.
He has watched Josh Inglis and Marcus Stoinis smash the ball around. He has seen enough of Steven Smith and Marnus Labuschagne take throwdowns. And the way he is holding his pose only a few steps away from the nets with a dead-pan straight face, it would seem as if he is barred from batting and has been punished further by watching his team-mates smother the ball in the nets, especially given the amount of runs that could again be on offer at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday.
Soon comes Maxwell's turn. Before you can say "Glenn", he has turned around and padded up with the same rush with which you dress up when you come out of the shower in the winters.
The net Maxwell enters is to face four local spinners. There are two right-arm legspinners, one left-arm wristspinner and one left-arm fingerspinner. They all don't replicate the variety and threat of spin bowling Afghanistan's spin attack will pose for Maxwell and Australia on Tuesday, but it's decent preparation they can manage for a game in which they will face at least three spinners, maybe four, all of different kind.
Mind you, Maxwell had already batted once in the nets roughly an hour earlier before he padded up again. It's Maxwell after all, a man not in form but in uber-form this World Cup. And he has been away from action for over a week now because of an off-field concussion. He is itching to get back and dispatch the ball to different parts of the ground. He must still be high on the fastest World Cup hundred he smashed recently and he is also scoring runs quicker than anyone this tournament (minimum 80 balls faced).
Afghanistan have themselves reached dizzying heights this World Cup especially because of their spin attack which is not heavily reliant on one or two individuals, and has collectively taken the second-most wickets as a unit this tournament, only behind table-toppers India.
So out comes Maxwell under his helmet. The length ball from the left-arm wristspinner is a bit too full and Maxwell swoops low for a slog-sweep deep into the leg side of the ground from the left-most training pitch on the off side. The legspinner pitches one too short and Maxwell pounces on the pull with such force that by the time he has finished his follow through, his bat is behind him, his body twisted with his stance open, his legs facing deep square leg and his torso is turned towards long leg.
Maxwell, we already know, defies the laws of physics while executing his outrageous shots. Have you seen him bat in the last 10 overs this World Cup? His strike rate is a whopping 220.33, and unless you are Aiden Markram or Quinton de Kock, you can't score quicker than him. Come Tuesday, he could easily face a lot of spin in that phase because Afghanistan are bowling more spin than anyone this World Cup.
Maxwell prepares for the next ball. It's pitched up, doesn't matter which arm the bowler has released it with, if he was a finger or wristspinner, bowled a wrong'un or stock ball. Maxwell packs so much power into it, before it can turn either way, to flay it down the ground that his body has twisted again because of his quick and whippy swing. The legs are alright this time, but the upper half has bent and run away to the off side, almost perpendicular to the bottom half with his head pointed towards deep point. The bat's face is towards the leg side. The ball? It had vanished a while ago.
Whether the subsequent balls were pitched up or short, outside off or in line with the stumps, Maxwell would only use hard hands combined with his open stance to swing big and dispatch the ball high and far from his net. The lofted drives on the up, the fierce scythe over point, the aerial reverse laps and reverse sweeps, the pull full of disdain, the slog sweep packed with force. There was only one way he was batting, and it seemed like that was the only way he would bat on Tuesday.
"I'm very aware of records; sometimes to the detriment of myself, I've always probably pushed the boundaries a bit too much"
It was only once earlier in the day during his first batting stint that Maxwell had looked a little different. He had warmed up with some defensive strokes and use of soft hands, naturally so because he is coming back from a concussion and missed one game. And it was only once that he was beaten completely, while attempting a reverse sweep against the left-arm fingerspinner, when he missed his swing and lost his off stump.
Maxwell won't worry about that though. One dismissal surrounded by countless lofted strokes doesn't mean much, that too against a left-arm spinner which Afghanistan don't have. What Afghanistan do have, though, among their four spinners is an offspinner in Mohammad Nabi, and Maxwell didn't get to face an offspinner in the nets on Monday. That won't worry him either because have you seen Maxwell's match-up against Nabi in ODIs? It's 42 runs off a mere 20 balls with just one dismissal, studded with four sixes and two fours. The sample size is small but it translates to a boundary every three balls or so.
The way the Wankhede has dished out sixes more frequently than any other ground this World Cup (55 in three games) and the way it has been so unfavourable to spinners in recent times, Afghanistan will probably hope that Maxwell ends up bowling more spin than facing it on Tuesday.