Maxwell must ditch 'funky' approach: Smith

Sydney, January 3: Australia captain Steve Smith has advised Glenn Maxwell to leave his "funky" style aside and improve his training habits after the all-rounder was dropped from the one-day international squad to face England.

Australia national selector Trevor Hohns said Maxwell must find greater consistency when announcing the squad.

Maxwell overlooked as Australia include Lynn

Maxwell averages 32.30 with a strike rate of 123.93 with the bat in 80 ODIs for Australia and also has 45 wickets. On his day, he is one of world cricket's most entertaining batsmen.

The 29-year-old had been considered for Australia's Test side during the Ashes and has gone on to hit a Sheffield Shield-leading 590 runs at 73.75, including a whopping 278, since missing out on the number-six spot to Shaun Marsh.

Smith credited Maxwell's efforts in that competition, and said prolonging his form will help in his quest for a recall.

"It's obviously unlucky on Glenn but if we look back at his last 20 one-dayers I think he's averaged around 20," Smith told reporters.

49 - @StarsBBL Glenn Maxwell has scored 49 runs from reverse sweep shots, more than any other player in @BBL history. Shenanigan. pic.twitter.com/83LlRNoovY

— OptaJason (@OptaJason) December 20, 2017

"He's come back and played some pretty good Shield cricket, but we just want to keep seeing consistent performances from him and just keep putting his name up there. That's the most important thing for him.

"Just looking at the way he trains, I think he could train a little bit smarter.

"We've all seen the way he can come out and play and do all his funky stuff and be pretty cool with that, but when he puts his head down he's actually a really good batsman, as we've seen in Shield cricket – he's got some big runs there.

"If he keeps his head switched on and trains really well and focuses on basic things probably more than the expansive things then I think that will help him have his consistency.

"If he's having those consistent performances he's certainly a person you want in your team."

Source: OPTA