After piling on runs domestically for Tamil Nadu, Abhinav Mukund was handed the prestigious India Test cap in absence of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir during the 2011 tour of West Indies that preceded the marquee and eventually dreadful England series.
However, just five Test matches later, the left-hand batsman found himself starting all over from the scratch as he got dropped with the return of the team's stalwarts.
It further took a lot of mental toll on the youngster when he also fell out of favour at the domestic level.
"I was at the top of my game, scoring hundreds for fun. But out of nowhere I was dropped from the national team, continued scoring runs for the state and yet was questioned at the state level," Mukund wrote for cricbuzz, bravely revealing his issues.
"Eventually, the runs dried up and just 18 months from playing Test cricket for the country I was dropped from the state side. Every single journalist, coach and mentor who wanted a piece of me when I was doing well, simply absconded from my life in search of the next, new, big happening thing."
During this phase, Mukund didn't feel comfortable speaking about his problems to anyone, and continued to work hard over his game, hoping to secure IPL and county deals, which never materialised.
"The IPL auctions came and went and to hide my embarrassment of not getting picked, I ran away to play club cricket in England. Yes, club not County Cricket," he wrote. "I was a far-fetched version of myself. Mind you, I was still averaging 50 in first-class cricket. I couldn't get a gig playing for any of the 30-odd counties, including the minor ones, so I settled to play league cricket."
"In my hope of playing for the county someday, I would head over to the local county's matches whenever they played at home, just to be their 12th man (literally carrying drinks and gloves)."
Only 24 at the time, Mukund found things more difficult the harder he tried. He was extremely vulnerable and needed help. Thankfully, he "didn't resort to drugs or alcohol, nor did I have any suicidal or self-destructive tendencies" and found some invaluable time away from the field.
"Four months away from India helped me gain a new perspective to life. A part of me broke free from the resonating pressure of making it to the state or the national side," he added.
"I returned home to play a pre-season tournament for my state that I ended up single-handedly winning for the team. So what had changed? Was I rejuvenated? Did I change my technique miraculously overnight? NO. I simply had nothing more to lose. I was delighted to be back - just playing and doing what I know best."
With his write-up at the time when more and more cricketers are courageously revealing their mental battle, Mukund basically conveyed it's absolutely fine to talk about the stigma and step off from what you so dearly love doing as he did and finally got back on track, making a comeback for India in 2017.
"To my fellow sportspersons, I say, be honest to yourself," he wrote. "Try fighting it, try going back to why you started doing this in the first place, try to be resilient. But if all else fails and your conscience knows you cannot take it anymore, take a break."
"It's ok to do so. I didn't do it willingly but it helped me. I didn't have the guts to come out and say so, mostly because I thought nobody cared."
"This is why less than 10% of people suffering from mental health conditions have come out and the rest just carry on lugging heavy baggages along in today's world."
"Open up, don't worry about what other people might think of you or what would happen to your career. Trust me, the sooner you are happier about doing what you do, the faster the road to success opens up."
(Inputs from cricbuzz)
