'Proud' Tendulkar lauds Kohli for opening up on battle against depression
Feb 20, 2021
New Delhi [India], February 20 : Former India batsman Sachin Tendulkar on Saturday said he is proud of Virat Kohli after the Indian skipper decided to open up on his battle against depression in 2014 during the tour of England.
"@imVkohli, proud of your success & decision to share such personal experiences. These days youngsters are constantly judged on social media. Thousands speak about them but not to them. We need to be able to listen to them and help them flourish," tweeted Tendulkar.
Earlier, Kohli had opened up on battling depression way back in 2014 during the tour of England saying that he felt like he was the "loneliest guy in the world".
Kohli had a substandard tour of England in 2014 as he was able to register scores of 1, 8, 25, 0, 39, 28, 0,7, 6, and 20 in the five Tests and his total average read 13.50 in 10 innings.
"I did. It's not a great feeling when 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 that you are not in control of anything at all. And you just don't understand how to get over it. I think 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 is wrong and rectify and move forward and open yourself up for change. That was a phase where I literally couldn't do anything to overturn what I was going through. I felt like I was the loneliest guy in the world," Kohli said during a conversation with former England first-class cricketer Mark Nicholas on his podcast -- 'Not Just Cricket'.
He also said: "For me, personally, that was a revelation that you could feel that lonely even though you are a part of a big group. I won't say I didn't have people that I could speak to but not having a professional to speak to who could understand what I am going through completely, I think is a huge factor. I think I would like to see it change. Someone that you can go to at any stage, have a conversation around, and say 'Listen this is what I am feeling, I am finding it hard to even go to sleep, I feel like I don't want to wake up in the morning. I have no confidence in myself, what do I do?'"
The Indian skipper also revealed former India batsman Sachin Tendulkar's advice to him, which he "took on board" and helped him change his mindset.
"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," he said.
