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Apart from pulling off the typical Maxwell move of crushing his first ball of the game for six, the game at Junction Oval was primarily about ensuring his body would respond well to the rigours of four days’ consecutive cricket.

Maxwell will now play the domestic one-day game after the Sheffield Shield encounter with NSW which starts on Sunday, and then follow up with an ODI series against Pakistan before a possible Shield return against Queensland later in November.

“I was getting a bit of itchy feet waiting, so I went to them [the selectors] and said there’s a second XI game,” Maxwell said. “Why don’t we play that one, or play the first two days then the Shield game, try to manufacture five or six days of cricket before the one-day series, and as it looks it’ll be the second XI then the one-dayer.

“It was the biggest confidence booster for me, I spent the whole match on the field, completely at peace with my leg and how it was going.”

Maxwell’s freakish broken leg in 2022 took a long time to get over, and the story of his recovery to play the innings of his life in the 2023 ODI World Cup is the central thread of The Showman, the book he has penned with Adam Collins that is released by Simon and Schuster at the end of the month.

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“I’m more at peace with what I’m limited to and a little bit more excited when I can see the ball and react and go side to side and don’t have any thoughts like ‘Did that hurt’ or ‘Is that a worry now’,” Maxwell said. “The whole week was a huge confidence booster.

“To have a few doubts before the game and not sure how four days of cricket was going to go, and to come out the other side, it shows there was a good reason not to play the first Shield game. It’s given me a huge amount of confidence for the summer.”

Beyond November is the Big Bash League, where Maxwell will turn out for the Stars without once wondering whether he should be playing in the Test team at home. Instead, any stray thoughts will look ahead to Sri Lanka and the chance to play in the sort of dramatic game currently playing out in India.

“Knowing the preparation over there in Sri Lanka, the first few training sessions are so much fun, getting into those nets and conditions,” Maxwell said.

“It’ll be great to have a hit or two in manufactured conditions here it’s not overly necessary, having been there a few times with a pretty good understanding of what I’m going to face.”

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