‘It was embarrassing for me,’ India all-rounder recalls Nidahas Trophy final

India all-rounder Vijay Shankar has revealed how S Badrinath and L Balaji helped him overcome the personal disappointment endured in the final of the 2018 Nidahas Trophy. Even though India won the final against Bangladesh with Dinesh Karthik hitting a famous six off the last ball to capture the title, in his T20I debut, Shankar had game to forget as he struggled with a 19-ball 17, an innings that almost cost India the match.

Shankar thanked Badrinath and former India quick Balaji, whose words of encouragement helped the allrounder overcome initial failures, especially after that final in Colombo in March of 2018.

“I learnt two big lessons at an early stage from Badri and Bala (L Balaji). Badri said to me – ‘if you’re good enough no one can stop you from playing at the highest level’. And Bala told me – ‘life is all about handling embarrassments.’ While it sounded something big at that time but when I started experiencing it, I understood it really well,” Shankar said during the show Mind Masters by MFORE on Star Sports 1.

“After Nidahas trophy, it was embarrassing for me. While overcoming these embarrassments, I remembered these lessons shared by them and it helped.”

MFORE is an initiative launched by Badrinath to help players deal with mental health issues better, a topic that as per former India captain MS Dhoni is still not as talked about as it should. Shankar’s Tamil Nadu teammate and India opener Abhinav Mukund, who has played seven Tests for the country, called it an underrated subject, while welcoming Badrinath’s initiative.

“We learnt a lot by watching others, the routines they are doing, mentally what all they are doing. But through a proper program for ways to train your mind, how much your subconscious mind helps and how much your conscious mind helps you – I learnt and realized all this only after playing a lot of cricket,” Mukund said during the same show.

“Consciously how we spend time for our fitness, batting and bowling, we need to give that much time to mental training, I think over the last 10-15 years, cricketers in Tamil Nadu have rarely done that.”