‘What did I do wrong?’: Former India star reveals how being dropped from team sent him into depression

NEW DELHI: Dropping out of the Indian team was one of the toughest phases of Amit Mishra’s cricket career. The former Indian footballer revealed that he struggled with depression for 18 months as he did not understand why he was not getting a chance to play for the country.Mishra made his international debut in 2003. However, he soon found himself out of the Indian team. He was also not selected for some domestic tournaments. Although he continued to play cricket, he still wondered why he was left out.In an interview with former India batsman Aakash Chopra, Mishra opened up about how the setback affected him.“I went into depression for a year and a half. I kept thinking about what my mistake was. I was playing everywhere but the only question in my mind was ‘what did I do wrong?’,” Mishra said.

The selector’s advice helped Amit Mishra

Mishra was also left out of the Duleep Trophy and India A’s zonal setup. He struggled to understand why he was not getting opportunities until the selector spoke to him about his performances.“Then the selector told me that I was not performing. I sat down and thought and understood that I was thinking of playing for India itself but not playing in domestic cricket,” he recalled.The selector’s words made Mishra rethink his approach. He realized that he was thinking too much about returning to the Indian team and not focusing enough on performing in domestic cricket.Mishra returned to the domestic circuit, worked on his game and his performances eventually helped him return to the Indian team in 2008, almost five years after his debut.He has played 22 Tests, 36 ODIs and 10 T20Is for India. He claimed to have taken 156 wickets across the three formats.