NEW DELHI: Recently, cricketers such as Glenn Maxwell have opened up about their struggles to cope with depression, prompting the likes of India captain Virat Kohli and Australia batsman Steve Smith to come out in support. Now, former England spinner Monty Panesar has written about his state of mind and how the initial reaction was that of ‘denial’.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Ekamra Sports Literature Festival, the left-arm spinner revealed that most people would not understand what he felt considering his background. “Belonging to a Punjabi family, I was supposed to be strong and not let things affect me. I was in big denial because I feared people would not believe that a person like me would suffer from this.”
All these issues hampered his career and ultimately, the 37-year-old ended up playing his last international game in December 2013.
“Looking back, I should have sought help from my family and friends much earlier. Hopefully, this current generation can start confiding in someone close to them to help tackle the issue.”Even though he has not played the sport for a long time now, Panesar still watches the game and has been very impressed with how Kohli & Co have been playing. He feels one of the best decisions India have taken is to have format-specific spinners in their ranks.
“It is vital to have multiple options in today’s day and age. And India are blessed with great finger as well as wrist spinners and they can utilise them according to the conditions. Personally, I would prefer playing wrist spinners in the shorter formats while concentrating on finger spinners in Tests. Both Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav have quite a few variations in their armoury and batsmen, in a hurry to up the scoring rate, have a higher chance of falling prey.”
India have always been a dominant side at home and many people have started calling this current lot the best in the world. However, Panesar, who made his debut back in 2006 in India, feels New Zealand will be a huge test for this side, especially their seamers.
“The Indian pacers have done phenomenally in recnt times. In New Zealand, they will have to do the bulk of the work and their performance will be key to India’s success. In terms of picking spinners, I would go for R Ashwin in place of R Jadeja as Ashwin is a canny operator and with his round the wicket line, can trouble the batsmen. Jadeja is a bit one-dimensional and maybe needs to improve his bowling to keep pace with the others.”