Cricketers have started to speak out about their battles with mental health problems and teams have begun to prioritize it. Recently, Australia cricketer Glenn Maxwell announced a sabbatical from cricket to fight his mental health issues.
Maxwell received a lot of support from the cricket fraternity as well as the fans for his brave decision to step away.
India skipper Virat Kohli has also backed Aussie all-rounder's decision. He revealed about the time when he was going through a rough phase himself.
Virat had a tough outing in England back in 2014, when he scored just 134 runs in the five Test matches. It wasn't easy for him to come out of it mentally.
"I've gone through a phase in my career where I've felt like it was the end of the world. In England 2014, I just didn't know what to do, what to say to anyone, how to speak, how to communicate. To be honest, I couldn't have said I am not feeling great mentally and I want to get away from the game because you never know how that's taken.
"I think these things should be of great importance because if you think that a player is important enough, for the team and for Indian cricket to go forward, I think they should be looked after," Kohli said during his press conference ahead of the First Test against Bangladesh.
Virat takes rest whenever possible to keep himself mentally and physically fresh. Even in the recently concluded T20I series against Bangladesh, Rohit Sharma, his deputy in limited overs cricket took over as stand-in captain.
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"I am absolutely for it. To be very honest, you have a job to do; we have a job to do. And everyone's focused on what they need to do so it's very difficult for anyone to figure out what's going on in another person's mind," Kohli said.
"When you get to the international stage, every player that's in the squad needs that sort of communication and that ability to just speak out. I think what Glenn [Maxwell] has done is remarkable and it sets the right example for cricketers all over the world that if you're not in the best frame of mind, you try, you try, you try. But I think as human beings you reach a tipping point at some stage and you need some time away from the game.
"Not to say that you give up but just to gain more clarity and you tend to take more space, which I think is quite acceptable and quite a nice thing to do. I think these things should be respected and not taken in a negative way at all because this is happening at a human level, it's got nothing to do with what you do on the field or not. Just not having the capacity anymore to deal with things, which I think can happen to anyone so I think it should be taken in a very positive way," he said.
(With Cricbuzz Inputs)
