Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone lauded India cricketer Jemimah Rodrigues after her revelation that she suffers from anxiety. Padukone, a star who is known to share her own struggle with depression openly, appreciated the honesty of Jemimah and her courage, thus emphasizing that mental health talk is still a must not only in sports but also in society.
Deepika shared a video Jemimah talking about her encountering with depression at the Instagram Stories. In her post Deepika wrote, "Thank you @jemimahrodrigues for your vulnerability and for sharing your story..."
During a post-match press conference, Jemimah became emotional as she recounted how her parents supported her through a difficult phase marked by severe anxiety. She shared, "I'll be very vulnerable here because I know if someone is watching this, they might be going through the same thing. And that's my whole purpose in saying it—because nobody likes to talk about their weakness. I was going through a lot of anxiety at the start of the tournament, and even before a few games, I used to call my mom and cry."
Describing her experience further, she said, "Cry the entire time, let it all out—because when you're going through anxiety, you just feel numb. You don't know what to do. You're trying to be yourself. During this time, my mom and dad supported me a lot. And also, there was Arundhati, in front of whom I think I cried almost every day. Later, I joked and said, 'Don't come in front of me, I'll start crying.' But she checked on me every single day."
Jemimah also reflected on the challenges of being benched during the early matches of the tournament. "I was dropped from the team. That really hit me. And when you're dropped, you have a lot of doubts because I always want to contribute to the team. But that day, I couldn't do much sitting out. And then when you come back in, there's a lot more pressure with everything that happened over the past month."
Sharing an inspiring takeaway from her journey, Jemimah added, "But sometimes, all you need to do is just hang in there, and things fall into place. So, I'm very grateful for the people who believed in me when I couldn't, and were there for me and understood me—because I couldn't do this on my own."
Rodrigues was able to show her true potential in the match and deliver a game-changing performance where she scored a brilliant 127* that led India to a record chase of 339 at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Thursday (October 30). With the 5-wicket triumph over the defending champions, India sealed their berth in the final, which will take place on Sunday (November 2), against South Africa.
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