Tag: Indian Cricket Players

  • Virat Kohli opens up about his battle with depression

    Virat Kohli opens up about his battle with depression

    In a recent podcast with Mark Nicholas, Indian captain Virat Kohli opened up about his battle with depression. Virat’s performance was disastrous during India’s 2014 tour of England. He only scored 134 runs in five Tests, which made him feel like the “loneliest guy in the world”.

    Talking about suffering from depression, Kohli said, “I did. It’s not a great feeling when you wake up knowing that you won’t be able to score any runs, and I think all batsmen have felt that at some stage or the other, where you’re not in control of anything at all. And I just couldn’t understand at all how to get over it.”

    Looking back at his difficult phase, the Indian captain said, “I think that when you look back at a very difficult phase, you realise that you had to go through that phase fully to be able to understand what’s wrong and rectify it and move forward, and just open yourself up for change, accept that there are things that are going wrong. But that was a phase where I literally couldn’t do anything to overturn what I was going through and it was tough.”

    He continued, “I felt like I was the loneliest guy in the world. And that’s what happens, you can really push yourself into a downward spiral, where you feel like you’re going further down with each day that passes. But when things turn around, you feel that maybe I was being too harsh on myself, I was putting myself down way more than what was required for me to change. So now I understand with years passing by, that there’s a line that needs to be drawn and beyond that line, if you’re going downwards, it’s absolutely not required.”

    Kohli also revealed how Sachin Tendulkar’s advice helped him. “I did have a chat with him about the mental side of things as well and the thing that he told me was, in cricket what he experienced was if you are going through a strong negative feeling and if that is coming into your system regularly, it is best to let it pass. If you start fighting that feeling, it grows stronger. So, that is the advice I took on board and my mindset really opened up from then on.”

    During the podcast, Virat also praised his wife Anushka Sharma by calling her his, “Pillar of Strength” and added that no one understands him better than her.

    Last month, Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli welcomed their baby girl, Vamika.

  • Sharma, Pant others being investigated for possible bubble breach

    Sharma, Pant others being investigated for possible bubble breach

    Five members of the touring Indian team in Australia could be part of an investigation after being involved in a potential bio-bubble breach reportedly while interacting with a fan at a Melbourne restaurant on January 1.

    Cricket Australia issued a statement saying that “they were alerted to a video post” of five players – Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, Prithvi Shaw and Navdeep Saini eating at an indoor venue, and that they are investigating the incident along with BCCI to determine a potential breach. In the meantime, as a precautionary measure, the players have been placed under isolation.

    On Friday, tweets by a fan went viral on social media, where he posted a video of the players enjoying a meal in Melbourne. Subsequent tweets by the individual mentioned that he had paid the bill on behalf of the players, following which Sharma interacted with him and Pant “hugged” him, and the team members posed for a photograph.

    While the fan earned plenty of support for his gesture on Twitter, and the story earned considerable traction on Indian media, there were concerns surrounding the safety of the players at a time when the teams have been placed in strict bio-secure bubbles due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

    Soon after reports of the possible breach came to light, the fan seemingly issued a clarification on social media, stating that Pant had not hugged him as tweeted earlier “as it was all said in excitement”, and insisted that there was “social distance maintained all through”.

    Concerns around player safety are serious particularly in Sydney, the venue of the third Test of the ongoing series. With the recent surge in Covid-19 cases in Sydney, there were reports that Melbourne, the venue of the second Test, could host the third Test as well. However, after negotiations between Cricket Australia and authorities in Queensland and New South Wales, Sydney Cricket Ground was retained as the venue for the third game of the series, currently tied 1-1.

    Meanwhile, according to Indian media, the Indian team management believes that the five players were indeed sitting outdoors as is allowed by protocols. They moved indoors only after there was a drizzle. The board is clear that the players did not do any activity that breaches the bio-secure bubble protocols.