Melbourne 03 Nov 2026 : Glenn Maxwell has retired from international cricket. The 38-year-old Australian batter, who stepped away from ODIs in June last year, has now bid farewell to T20Is as well as List A and first-class cricket. He will continue to play in the Big Bash League for Melbourne Stars, who have him under contract until the end of the 2027-28 season.
Maxwell finishes with 2,897 runs in 130 T20Is, the third-most for Australia in the format, at a strike rate of over 154. He has also scored five centuries, a world record he shares with Rohit Sharma.
Maxwell said the conversations about his future had been ongoing for a while. “We probably had numerous discussions before and after the T20 World Cup,” Maxwell said on The Final Word podcast. “And it was pretty open-ended. There wasn’t any pressure from [Australia team management] and we decided to sort of leave the door open. There was a couple of series that were coming up [in which] they were going to look to the future, and we saw that in Bangladesh with guys getting their opportunity and performing really well.”
England’s upcoming white-ball tour includes a T20I in Melbourne, and Maxwell said a farewell game at his home stadium had indeed crossed his mind. “[There was, I] suppose, a small hope or discussion that I might have been able to potentially get a send-off game at the MCG. But [I] can completely understand the direction they’re going with this squad. There’s going to be a lot of change, I suppose, over the next 12 to 24 months with the Olympics coming up [in 2028], and they’ve got to make sure that they get their eyeballs on a few young guys coming through and making sure that they’re getting exposed to international pressure that you probably can’t always get from a BBL fixture.
“So probably just the small fairy tale that you sort of see these, your heroes and idols, sort of go through. You start to sort of let your mind drift towards that, and probably no other format I probably would have asked for it, except for this one, where I feel like it’s been, it’s almost felt like home over the last 15 years.
“The option was there, but I was sort of ready to push the button on getting an injection on my knee to make sure I was ready for the BBL. So there was sort of a positive either way. And as soon as that door was shut, I was able to start to put some time back into my body. Eight weeks of solid rehab again to make sure I’m strong and ready for the BBL coming up.
“It’s probably a time where I need to spend a little bit more time investing in the body to make sure I can get through the remaining couple of tournaments I’ve got in my career.”
Maxwell’s final international appearance turned out to be against Oman in February, in the last of Australia’s matches at a T20 World Cup from which they exited in the group stage.
