India batsman Jemimah Rodrigues has openly faced anxiety during the ODI World Cup campaign. In an interview with Cricbuzz, Jemimah took a deep dive into the challenges she faced and how she finally came out of them.
India’s ODI World Cup campaign has brought with it intense pressure, but it has also unleashed a deeply personal battle for Jemimah. The India batsman revealed that she battled anxiety for almost the entire tournament – a struggle that hit her right from the very first match.
She said she couldn’t understand why it was happening or how to control it. “Right from the first game I was dealing with a lot of anxiety,” Jemimah admitted. “For some reason I couldn’t get rid of it, sometimes you can’t get rid of it. Even though she knew the feelings were “pointless”, she just couldn’t shake them.
As the tournament progressed, the anxiety began to affect the parts of the game that she had always derived joy from. Fielding, usually her escape, suddenly choked. She recalled how the pressure of not scoring runs spilled over into everything else: “I started getting anxious even in the field thinking, ‘Now that I haven’t scored, I have to do something special.’ I wasn’t able to enjoy my field.’
What made this phase even more difficult were the constant emotional breakdowns she was experiencing behind the scenes. Jemimah admitted she struggled to be herself on the field and felt numb during the games – feelings she struggled to express. “Someone who is going through this will understand,” she said. “At that point you feel numb, you can’t do anything.
Opening with friends and mother
But slowly the turning point came when she decided not to deal with it alone. Her decision to open up to her closest friends allowed her to breathe again. “It was hard, but it was good that I wasn’t shy about talking about it,” she said, adding that letting things out instead of pretending to be normal helped her process her emotions.
One of her strongest pillars of support was Arundhati Reddy, who checked on her every day. “Aru was checking on me, she knew what I was going through,” Jemimah said. She also leaned on Smriti Mandhana who tried to understand her situation and offer solace.
However, the toughest moment came just before the highly anticipated match against Pakistan. Jemimah recalled waking up stunned, despite several quiet days leading up to the game. After the physio session, the emotions completely broke through. She went to her room and cried uncontrollably before calling her mother to confess that she was “not feeling well” and didn’t know what to do.
She told her mother how even playing in the field—her favorite part of the game—became a source of anxiety. The answer she received was unexpected and deeply grounding. “My mum told me one thing ‘Even if you want to leave the World Cup and come home, I’m fine. I’ll fight for it with everyone. It’s important to me that you’re happy’.”
For Jemimah, this unconditional reassurance was like a lifeline. “You’re just saying it means the world to me,” she told her mother. It reminded her that he values her even beyond her performances, for the numbers, for the jersey.
The batsman further added in the interview that a visit to church before the semi-final of the tournament with Arundhati Reddy lifted a weight off her shoulders and that a small chat with Smriti Mandhana finally brought her back to normal before the biggest game of her career.
Jemima’s openness lifts the veil of a reality that many athletes face but rarely talk about – the silent, all-consuming nature of anxiety. Her willingness to share her journey – breakdowns, support, vulnerability and recovery – offers a powerful message: that asking for help is not weakness, but strength.
And in the end, it was a support system—friends who checked in every day, a teammate who listened, and a mother who offered unconditional love—that helped her find her way back to herself.
– The end
Issued by:
Kingshuk Kusari
Published on:
November 29, 2025
