According to local media on Thursday, Indian superstar Virat Kohli, who guided his team to unheard-of heights, admits he has battled mental health issues his whole career.

The 33-year-old former captain rose to the top of the five-day rankings by batting brilliantly and earning a reputation for his aggressiveness. But the “King” Kohli, as he is known in the Indian media, has struggled recently and has been stripped of all-format captaincy since late last year following a disappointing performance at the 2021 T20 World Cup.

When one loses touch with himself, in Kohli’s opinion, it is crucial to spend some time to reconnect with oneself. He stated that in order to maintain equilibrium, an athlete must learn to categorise time. The only way, in his opinion, to maintain a “sense of sanity” and find happiness in one’s profession, he continued, is via practice and investment in it.

Virat Kohli said it was important for athletes to rest and recover from the pressures of sport and reconnect with their "core self"#ViratKohlihttps://t.co/RK40OP7mn2

— CricketNDTV (@CricketNDTV) August 18, 2022

“For an athlete, the sport can bring the best out of you as a player but at the same time, the amount of pressure that you are constantly under can affect your mental health negatively. It is definitely a serious issue and as much as we try to be strong at all times, it can tear you apart,”

Kohli told The Indian Express

In order to be a successful athlete, Kohli advises aspiring athletes to constantly stay in touch with their inner selves in addition to their physical health. Spending time with family, he added, was one thing that helped him decompress after a busy season. Travelling, he continued, had allowed him to “de-stress.”

One of the highest-paid athletes in the world, Kohli, has not recorded a century in any format since 2019.

He has now been chosen in India’s T20 squad for the Asia Cup, which begins with a match against arch-rivals Pakistan, after being rested for the previous West Indies tour.

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“I personally have experienced times when even in a room full of people who support and love me, I felt alone, and I am sure that this is a feeling that a lot of people can relate to. So, take out time for yourself and reconnect with your core self. If you lose that connection, it wouldn’t take very long for other things to crumble around you,”

added the former India captain.