“They come to India to spend their holidays” - Virender Sehwag Blasts Glenn Maxwell, Liam Livingstone Over IPL 2025 Form
Sehwag Claims Maxwell, Livingstone Have Lost Their Hunger
Virender Sehwag is widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen that India and the IPL have ever seen. During his international playing career, Sehwag played a total of 104 Tests and 251 ODI matches for the Men in Blue, scoring 8,586 and 8,273 runs in each format, respectively.
In the IPL, the 46-year-old featured in 104 matches for the now-dissolved Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab (now known as the Punjab Kings) between 2008 and 2015, scoring 2,728 runs, including a highest score of 122, which he recorded in just 55 balls.
Known to speak his mind, Sehwag shared his views on the performances of overseas internationals Glenn Maxwell and Liam Livingstone, who were dropped from their respective franchises earlier in this season’s competition.
Maxwell was released by the Royal Challengers Bangalore this season and joined the Punjab Kings, while Livingstone went the other way, but both players were excluded by their respective teams due to poor performances. RCB will face CSK on Saturday, and our Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Chennai Super Kings prediction is now online.
In his interview, Sehwag questioned the duo’s hunger to perform well in the competition, while suggesting that they treat the IPL season like a holiday trip rather than the biggest cricket league in the world. He said:
“I think their hunger has been satiated. That’s why they come here to celebrate the holidays. They don’t feel like they have to win matches for the team or contribute to the trophy. They just talk about winning but don’t perform. I have spent time with many overseas players who wanted to win the tournament. I don’t see that mindset in them”
Livingstone scored just 76 runs in seven matches this season, and recorded scores of 0, 4 and 4 before he was dropped, while Maxwell made just 48 runs in seven games, with 30 of those runs coming in a single innings.
Sehwag Reaffirms Not All International Players Are Guilty of Poor Professionalism
While Sehwag’s words during his interview may have ruffled a few feathers, particularly among overseas internationals, the 46-year-old took the time to laud selected players that he felt have always given their all at the Indian Premier League.
Among the foreign players the former Indian batsman singled out were South Africa’s AB de Villiers and the Aussie duo of David Warner and Glenn Maxwell, whom he played with and against during his eight years participating in the competition.
"David Warner, AB de Villiers and Glenn McGrath are the three players who used to tell me, 'I will win games for you, play me.' I used to be in a fix about whom to play and whom to drop.”
Sehwag also shared a story about another South African batter, David Miller, who he said used to have turning pitches specially prepared in the Punjab nets so that he could practise on them in order to become more familiar with conditions in the sub-continent.
Both the Royal Challengers Bangalore and Punjab Kings have fared well without Livingstone and Maxwell in the competition, currently placed third and fourth, respectively, in the league standings with four games to go before the playoffs.
