Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has responded to former India batsman Virender Sehwag’s scathing review of his performances in IPL 2020, saying that he is aware of Sehwag’s ‘outspoken’ dislike of him.

Sehwag, who featured in daily videos during IPL 2020, using tongue-in-cheek humour to review matches and criticise players, called Maxwell a ’10-crore cheerleader’ in the Kings XI Punjab line-up, who is in the UAE on a ‘highly-paid vacation’.

The dig was at Maxwell’s poor form in IPL 2020, where the Australian managed just 108 runs at an average of 15.42 and strike-rate of 101.88, failing to hit a six in 13 matches.

Had you seen this XI before #IPL2020 you might have thought it was a team of the tournament in waiting.@ojerson8 picks a team of players we expected to sizzle who fizzled instead.https://t.co/n83KaTyajH

— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) November 12, 2020

“It’s ok. Viri [Sehwag] is pretty outspoken with his dislike of me, and that’s fine,” Maxwell was quoted as saying by The West Australian. “He’s allowed to say whatever he likes. He’s in the media for such statements, so that’s fine. I deal with that and move on, and take it with a grain of salt with Sehwag.”

Sehwag, who served as KXIP’s mentor from 2016 to 2018, has criticised Maxwell’s IPL performances in the past – in 2017, he called it a ‘big disappointment’ that Maxwell, the then-captain, had failed to perform in the competition, despite his strong credentials at the international level.

In his interview, Maxwell also spoke about his struggle with mental issues in the past, revealing that the short break he took from cricket helped him grow himself to deal with problems better.

Just Glenn Maxwell casually hitting a wide yorker over point for six.pic.twitter.com/YbOLmPqv0z

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) December 27, 2019

“I think I’m better equipped with dealing with those sorts of things now,” Maxwell was quoted as saying. “I think in hindsight it was a pretty good time to go through something like that where I was able to put some groundwork in to deal with adversity. This year has certainly been a massive test of it.

“To be able to help people through different times of tough periods and be able to help myself through those tough periods has been really key as well.”