Lehmann's criticism inspiring Maxwell's 'turn of form' at IPL: Report

Australian head coach Darren Lehmann may reportedly have motivated his team's batsman Glenn Maxwell's impressive turn of form at the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Maxwell has opened the IPL with surprising innings of 95 (off 43 balls), 89 (45) and 95 (43) for Kings XI Punjab, which have gone a long way to justifying Punjab's incredible outlay of 1.06 million-dollar at this year's IPL auction.

According to News.com.au, the all-rounder had struggled to hold his place in national teams after a string of indifferent showings and earned a reputation as an underachiever prior to this season despite his natural talent, and it peaked when Lehmann publicly criticised Maxwell for reckless strokeplay and repeated failures to close out innings.

However, the report mentioned that it seems Maxwell has taken Lehmann's words to heart given his score of 201 runs in the nine Twenty20 internationals since then and being Australia's best-performed player at the World T20 in Bangladesh, in contrast to his preceding record of 102 runs with a top score of 27 in 12 T20Is.

Maxwell has shown even more impressive transformation in the IPL and blew away reports of being a 'million-dollar waste' after he was declared a permanent fixture in the top order at Punjab, which resulted in an incredible average of 93.00 and a strike rate of 212.98 including 24 boundaries and 16 sixes in just three innings.

Maxwell has since been named Man of the Match in every game he has played for Punjab, which is sitting alone atop the IPL ladder, the report added.