Glenn Maxwell retires from international cricket: the Big Show who owned Indian crowds bows out
Australia's Glenn Maxwell, 38, has retired from international cricket after 14 years, three ICC titles and that 201 not out at the Wankhede. He will keep playing T20 leagues.
Glenn Maxwell has walked away from international cricket. The 38-year-old Australian announced his retirement on The Final Word podcast, released on 3 November 2026, ending a 14-year run in the green and gold. He is also done with domestic cricket for Victoria, which means no more red-ball or one-day state games. The T20 franchise circuit gets him full-time from here.
For Indian fans, this one stings a little. Few overseas players have spent as much of their careers in front of Indian crowds as the man everybody calls the "Big Show".
The numbers behind the noise
Maxwell finishes with 7 Tests, 149 ODIs and 130 T20Is for Australia. He scored 3,990 ODI runs at a strike rate of 126.7 and 2,897 T20I runs at a strike rate of 154.4, with 10 international hundreds and 136 international wickets along the way. He also collects three ICC trophies: the ODI World Cups of 2015 and 2023 and the T20 World Cup of 2021.
He had already quit ODIs in June 2025. His last game for Australia was a dead-rubber against Oman at the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka earlier this year. That was not quite the goodbye he had in mind. Talking about the upcoming T20I series against England, Maxwell admitted there had been "a small hope or discussion that I might have been able to potentially get a send-off game at the MCG". He added: "But I can completely understand the direction they're going with this squad."
That night at the Wankhede
Ask any Indian cricket fan for one Maxwell memory and you will hear about Mumbai. At the 2023 ODI World Cup, Australia were chasing 292 against Afghanistan at the Wankhede Stadium and slumped to 91 for 7. Maxwell, battling exhaustion and full-body pain, smashed 201 not out off 128 balls. Pat Cummins stayed with him in an unbroken stand of 202 for the eighth wicket, and Australia won by three wickets with 19 balls to spare. It is widely ranked among the greatest one-day innings ever played, and it happened in our backyard.
Australia went on to win that World Cup too, which Indian fans remember all too well. We have mostly forgiven him. Mostly.
An IPL lifer who already said goodbye
Maxwell's India story goes back to 2012, when he played his first IPL season, and he went on to play 13 of them. Punjab Kings brought him back for Rs 4.2 crore for IPL 2025, when he managed 48 runs and four wickets in seven matches, and then released him.
In December 2025 he chose not to enter the IPL 2026 auction, ending that 13-season stint. "The IPL has helped shape me as a cricketer and as a person," he said at the time. "The memories, the challenges, and the energy of India will stay with me forever."
What comes next
Maxwell is not hanging up the bat. He says he is "investing in the body" for "the remaining couple of tournaments" of his career, and he will turn out for the Melbourne Stars in the upcoming Big Bash League. For Indian viewers, that means the Maxwell show now lives in franchise leagues, not in India vs Australia fixtures.
The FHM take
The Wankhede double hundred alone earns him a permanent spot in Indian cricket conversations. A send-off at the MCG would have been fitting, but honestly, the Big Show was always going to exit on his own unpredictable terms.
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