IPL 2022 | Weight of captaincy removed, a stress free Kohli could be dangerous news for opposition: Maxwell

“It is amazing for him to be relaxed a bit and actually enjoy the next few years of his career without any of that sort of external pressure”

Virat Kohli nowadays looks "stress free" without the burden of captaincy weighing him down, a dangerous sign for the opposition teams in the upcoming IPL, feels Royal Challengers Bangalore teammate Glenn Maxwell.

Kohli, who relinquished RCB captaincy after last year's IPL, has also resigned from T20 and Test captaincy while being removed from ODI leadership role.

Maxwell feels that Kohli now is no longer the "in-your face" aggressive cricketer that he used to be and that has been pleasantly surprising.

"He knows he's handing the captaincy over, which I think is potentially a big burden for him. It might have been something that's been weighing him down for a while and now that he's been able to release it, it might be dangerous news for opposition teams," Maxwell told RCB Podcast.

The flamboyant Australian is happy that Kohli is in that phase when he would actually be enjoying being out there in thick of things.

"It is amazing for him to be relaxed a bit and actually enjoy the next few years of his career without any of that sort of external pressure. I think playing against him in earlier days, he was a fiery competitor, getting in your face. He's always trying to impose himself on the game. Impose himself on the opposition." The Australian all-rounder is loving the cricketing conversations he is having with Kohli and is himself surprised that the former India skipper has become a close friend.