Star Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has backed Virat Kohli to do well in IPL 2022. Maxwell argues that Kohli will be back to his very best now that he is stress free without the burden of captaincy and this could mean danger for the other IPL teams.

Virat Kohli had decided to relinquish the captaincy of Royal Challengers Bangalore during IPL 2021. Following plenty of speculation, Faf du Plessis was chosen as the new captain of the franchise.

Glenn Maxwell who began his RCB career phenomenally last season thinks that the weight of captaincy getting off his shoulders will help Virat Kohli to get back to his very best. It was something that was weighing him down in the past but Maxwell is happy to see his former skipper being more relaxed and stress free these days also arguing that earlier in his career, Kohli was more intent and on the edge.

“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.

“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,” Maxwell told RCB Podcast.

Kohli has also endured a torrid time in the international circuit and his rough patch is showing little signs of ending. It’s not the case that he has been horrible with the bat but Kohli has got out to bad deliveries quite often recently. The whole captaincy saga that surrounded him and BCCI also made matters worse and Kohli relinquished his Test captaincy after he was removed as ODI captain of Team India.

Glenn Maxwell also stressed on the fact that Virat Kohli has become a more measured person in terms of emotions and understands how to handle himself better. “Something I’ve noticed more from him this year is he’s been really measured with his emotions. He’s actually been really measured with his decision-making. He’s certainly really surprised me and probably how close we’ve both gotten to each other as well this year. Being able to talk about the game in a calm manner,” he added.