XtraTime Web Desk – The 2014 series against England was probably the toughest one for Virat Kohli. Few days back, the Indian skipper admitted that he was fighting with depression at that point and was feeling alone and his performance on the pitch is the sole reason for this.
In an recent interview with Mark Nicolas on his podcast, ‘Not just cricket’, Kohli admitted how Sachin Tendulkar helped him to fight those times. Kohli said, “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”.
Virat Kohli is a flamboyant cricketer. He was right from the start. Whatever he does, he does it with utmost confidence. However, he admitted how depressed he was during that time!
“I did (feel depressed). 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”, said Virat Kohli.
Sachin Tendulkar on Saturday tweeted, “Virat Kohli, 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”.
After so many years, Kohli is highly known for his mindset. Not only during a game but off the field as well. He tries to instill that among everyone in the squad as well. Being a captain of the team, Kohli always backs his players. Recently, he defended Rahane over his off form and in the past, he has backed youngsters like Rishabh Pant and Prithvi Shaw. Thus, what the great Sachin Tendulkar once did with him, Virat is now doing it with the youngsters in the Indian team.