Mumbai: Indian skipper Virat Kohli emphasized the importance of mental health, and reckons that mental health should be become an equally important topic along with physical workload management in modern day of cricket.
Kohli, who has often endorsed his view on mental health, agreed that the focus on understanding the importance of an players well-being will “become a norm” in the days to come.
“Apart from the workloads, the mental health side of things will also come into the picture big time because you don’t have an outlet at all. So I think mental health is a huge factor which should not be neglected. Because as much hard work as we’ve done to create this team, you don’t want players falling out because of the mental pressures and not having the capacity or the space to express themselves.” Kohli said in his pre-departure press conference.
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Kohli also emphasized players asking for breaks to address mental well-being issues and opined that management need to understand that. “In today’s day and age you literally go into the ground, come back to the room, and you have no space where you can just disconnect from the game and just go out for a walk or go out for a meal or a coffee and say, ‘okay, let me refresh myself, let me just get away from the game a little bit. So I think there has to always be a channel over which the management has left it for players to approach them and tell them, ‘Look, I’m not feeling right in the head, and I just need a break and I just want to disconnect from the game for a while. I’m sure that the management understands that,” said the skipper.
Kohli also dismissed the fact that New Zealand hold an advantage over team India, after they had played recent game in England just before the WTC final. “Don’t board the flight if you think New Zealand have an extra edge in the finals. In the past we’ve landed three days prior to the schedule and had a great tour. Conditions are as potent for New Zealand as they are for us. Conditions in Australia should’ve favoured them too. It’s not the first time we are playing in England. The hunger and desire has to be there. We have no problems with having just four practice sessions going into the final. It’s about how you look at things. It’s all in the head,” Kohli added.
The Men in Blue have departed to the UK where they will be playing six Test matches for the ICC World Test Championship final. India will be locking horns against New Zealand in the final at the Ageas Bowl, Southampton between June 18, followed by the Tests against England from August 4.
