The 2019-20 BBL season ended in frustrating circumstances.

It had rained all day in Sydney for the final, just for a change when the cricket’s on.

Then somehow we got a 12-over match against the Sixers. We fell short in that shortened final (on February 8), something we’ve made a habit of.

Just as frustrating was picking up an elbow injury at the pointy end of that tournament.

The best way I can describe is it that the joint would click when playing some shots and it felt like there was something out of place.

By the post-season matches, it stopped me playing my reverses and I couldn’t go inside-out over cover.

There was no way I could quit the tournament but it didn’t help that I was playing one-handed at the end, getting out sweeping Steve O’Keefe (for five) in the final when I would normally reverse.

By this point I had been picked for an upcoming tour of South Africa through February and March, my Aussie comeback. I was relieved, but there was a clash with my closest friend’s wedding.

Rob Cockerell, my best mate, had asked me to be his best man. I floated with management the chance of missing the final game to get home in time. That got knocked back. It was a bloody difficult phone call to make to Rob. As with so many things, playing for Australia came first.

That was, until I had my elbow scan, when I was surprised by how insistent the doctor was that I needed surgery right away and that I wasn’t to hit another ball until it happened. There was loose bone and cartilage floating in there and I was going to make it much worse. My whole South African tour was off.

‘ARE YOU SAYING I FAKED AN INJURY?’

Injuries happen, that’s life. But there was more to play out.

Two nights after the BBL final we gathered for Allan Border Medal night in Melbourne, by which time I already knew the bad news from the scan. It had gone up the chain. When JL (coach Justin Langer) saw me, he was not pleased. He brought up the wedding, putting it to me directly that I had engineered missing the tour, and added that my first games back for Australia should have been the priority.

I blew up. “Are you saying I’ve faked an injury?” I said, probably with several expletives in there for decoration. He replied that I had been fine for the BBL final, I was going to be fine in time for the IPL, yet was suddenly unfit for this tour.

He seemed to think I could tough it out and be fine to play, despite the scan and the doctor’s advice.

It was only a couple of months since JL had been brilliant when realising that I was in strife and had given the support I needed (Maxwell took a mental health break from cricket in late 2019). But this latest episode was another example of where, for whatever reason, there was some sort of block for him when it came to me. I never could explain it.

I went under the knife as planned and recovered quickly enough that I was fit for the one-day series against New Zealand through the middle of March. Eventually the call was made not to rush me back, but it mattered little. Along came the pandemic, stopping the series after one match and the world along with it.

At least before that happened I got to Rob’s wedding and gave his best man speech, one of the happiest nights of my life.

‘WE WERE GASPING FOR BREATH’

Back to the 2023 ODI World Cup, nearly four years later, the healthy, grown-up team environment that by then we enjoyed was the biggest asset we had.

Seeing it from my trajectory, within that team I felt at ease to be who I am in a way that hopefully means I’ll never get back to the low place I was in 2019.

Across the board, we’re able to retain perspective when things don’t go as planned. The two losses to start the tournament meant they very much hadn’t.

For our third game, as refreshed as we could be after a precious couple of days to ourselves, the planning against Sri Lanka was all about trying to make the running.

We know that when we’re ahead, we’re difficult to catch. But that didn’t play out at all – we were the ones with the big gap to make up, gasping for breath. It felt like the start of the South Africa game, getting into a dangerous rhythm as Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Perera got off to a flyer. As they crossed 20 overs at a run a ball with no wicket down, a few of us were starting to fret.

Enter Patty (Cummins). Four balls into the 22nd over, banging one in at Nissanka, he was pulled out to deep midwicket where Davey (Warner) sprinted around to take a diving catch to his left.

It’s been a long time since the ‘Bull’ had a strong arm from the deep, but he takes himself out to those spots anyway, and his pace across the ground makes him an asset on the ropes. The way he celebrated that wicket reminded me of Warnie (Shane Warne) in the 1999 semi-final, bowling Herschelle Gibbs before screaming at his teammates that they had to lift.

There was also some Warne theatre about the way Patty knocked over Perera for 78 with the most superb off-cutter.

MAKING A STATEMENT

Davey took a second screamer in the deep, this time to his right, which was huge for Zamps (Adam Zampa) after having copped a lot of stick for the earlier losses. He had back spasms causing him endless grief but he found a way. He finished with four wickets and we had run through them for 209.

Davey hit a huge six to get us going in the chase and, even though he was soon out, it set the tone for how we were going to do this.

We were 57 away from victory when I walked in at number six.

My first four scoring shots were boundaries. I clobbered Maheesh Theekshana for two big ones to go from 16 to 28.

Marcus Stoinis came and joined me for the last bit and played in the same way.

Neither of us wanted to bat as we had against the Proteas ever again.

There at the end together, we had held our nerve and smashed them with nearly 15 overs to spare.

Now it was time to get busy through the middle of the tournament and make our presence felt. Our next stop was my IPL home – Bangalore.