Former India skipper Virat Kohli took a long break after India’s tour of England last month. He missed the limited-overs series against the West Indies and Zimbabwe. Some fans argued that the right-hander could have played at least one of these series to get back to form. However, the 33-year-old decided to go on a break with his family.
Now, as he is gearing up for the upcoming Asia Cup 2022, he has revealed that he realized that he was faking his intensity. The former India skipper explained that he had to convince himself that he had the intensity going. However, after a break, the Delhi player realized that he needs to take a break for a while.
“For the first time in 10 years, I didn’t touch my bat for a month. I came to realisation that I was trying to fake my intensity a bit recently. I was convincing myself that no, you had the intensity. But your body was telling you to stop. The mind was telling me to take a break and step back,” Kohli said in a video posted by Star Sports.
“I’m looked at as a guy who is mentally very strong and I am. But everyone has a limit and you need to recognize that limit, otherwise, things can get unhealthy for you,” he added.
I embraced the mentally challenging period; Virat Kohli
The 2008 U19 World Cup winning skipper added that the phase during the break made him embrace the mental health challenges. He further added that he isn’t shy in admitting that he was feeling mentally down.
“This period taught me a lot of things that I wasn’t allowing to come to surface. When they eventually came up, I embraced it,” he said.
“I’m not shy to admit that I was feeling mentally down. This is a very normal thing to feel, but we don’t speak because we are hesitant. We don’t want to be looked at as mentally weak. Trust me, faking to be strong is far worse than admitting to be weak,” he concluded.
