‘How he helped me through depression’ Indian captain opens up on his chat with legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar

We all have gone through times in which we feel like sitting in group and staying alone simultaneously. Let’s call it depression. Everyone of us at some point in life, has to face it. If you have good friends or family, well and good. India captain Virat Kohli is also revealing about the time he went through depression during the England tour in 2014. He says that it was a conversation with legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar that helped him survive.

Kohli said Sachin advised him not to fight the negative feelings, instead to let them pass because fighting only makes those feelings stronger. “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,” Kohli told.

The Indian captain said he was then unaware of how to get over the negative feelings during that England tour in which he averaged 13.50 in the Test series. “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 Kohli.

Kohli could defeat the depression because he opened up his mind with Tendulkar. So if you are going through such a phase, stay calm and share your thoughts with someone. Never fight the negative feelings. Let them pass. Focus on the good things and find people who will keep you smile. Let the depression get depressed!!!!