Ex-India spinner Amit Mishra has discussed dealing with severe depression for more than one year after he was dropped from the Indian team and also found himself out of domestic teams as well.
Mishra played 22 Tests, 36 ODIs, and 10 T20Is for India from 2003 to 2017, taking 156 wickets across formats. His ODI debut came in 2003 in Bangladesh, but he had to wait till 2008 for his Test debut. He also played for India in the 2014 T20 World Cup.
In a recent podcast, Amit Mishra talked about going into severe depression after being dropped from the Indian team after his ODI debut in 2003. Mishra shared that he went through this desolate phase for more than a year. During this time, he had no one to turn to.
After the euphoria of making his debut for India, Mishra's career took a turn for the worse in the following years as he was excluded from domestic teams and eventually fell into a rut of poor play.
"I went into depression for a year and a half. I kept thinking about what my mistake was. I was playing everywhere, but the only question in my mind was, 'What did I do wrong? I had played for India but got dropped. Then I was not in the Duleep Trophy. I was not in the India A team for zonals. I could not understand what was happening with me. One season went badly.
Then a selector told me that I was not performing. I sat down and thought, and I understood that I was thinking of playing for India itself but not performing in domestic cricket," Mishra stated in a conversation with Aakash Chopra on his podcast.
Mishra went on to openly admit that he had no one to talk to at the time. He explained that he couldn't tell his family since they would get much more anxious.
"I had nobody to talk to during my bad time, to be honest. I could not tell my family either. I could not discuss these things with anyone. I was on my own. But I realized that until I performed, things would not work. I was told to work on batting as well, and I did that too. I did decently well in one season, and then I was picked for the Duleep Trophy. Then I realized this is how things will work. I had no godfather, so I knew I had to keep proving myself. Even my coach had told me this," Mishra said.
Amit Mishra was recently unveiled as the spin bowling coach of the Delhi Capitals (DC) side ahead of the IPL 2027 season. Mishra is one of the most successful bowlers in the IPL, taking 174 wickets in 162 games and being the only bowler with three hat-tricks in his name.
