“Mental Health” is something which people easily do not talk in public. However, the matter has become a hot topic after some of the elite cricketers have decided to speak up in open and started discussing it. It all started with Glenn Maxwell, who took a break from the game to work on his mental health issues.

Apart from Maxwell, batsmen Nic Maddinson, Will Pucovski also recently announced breaks from international cricket to deal with their mental health issues and got support from Cricket Australia. However, Virat Kohli also joined them citing his own struggles of the past. Kohli recalled his 2014 tour of England when he managed just 134 runs from 10 innings with the highest score of 39.

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Another player has joined the list – Abhinav Mukund who also faced similar issues and battled depression after being dropped from the national side. Having nearly 1000 first-class runs under his belt and 29 centuries, Mukund was rated as the “next big thing” in Indian cricket but after being dropped from the national side, Mukund spoke about his illness.

“To my fellow sportspersons, I say, be honest to yourself. 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,” Abhinav Mukund wrote in an exclusive column for Cricbuzz.

“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 baggage along in today’s world,” the left-hander shared.

“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,” Mukund concluded.