"No one even told me what mistakes I was making"- Ashutosh Sharma claims depression as the reason for his move from MP to Railways

Punjab Kings (PBKS) batter Ashutosh Sharma grabbed the limelight with a fantastic cameo of 31 off just 17 balls that helped his team beat the Gujarat Titans (GT) in their IPL 2024 fixture in Ahmedabad on Thursday, April 4. Punjab got home with a ball to spare and with three wickets in hand chasing 200 runs.

Ashutosh has made a reputation for himself as an explosive batter and plays for the Railways in domestic cricket. However, he started his professional career at Madhya Pradesh and even made his T20 and List A debut for them in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

Speaking to the reporters in a press conference, Ashutosh Sharma opened up on the reasons for moving on from Madhya Pradesh to the Railways. He claimed that a certain professional coach unfairly dropped him to the bench due to which the player suffered from depression.

“In 2019, I scored 84 runs in my last game for Madhya Pradesh in T20, and next year a professional coach came in and he did not like me. The professional coach came in and he made me sit on the bench. And that was the time of Covid, so only 20 people would travel, and I would stay at the hotel. So I was in the hotel for 1-2 months and I went into depression since I didn’t even get to see the ground. I would just go to the gym and come back to my room," Ashutosh said.

He further added:

"I got very irritated at that time and went into depression, thinking about what had suddenly happened, what wrong I did, no one even told me what mistakes I was making. I was just shunned out of the setup."

That period of 2-3 years tested Ashutosh Sharma's patience, after which he decided to make a move to Railways. He kept on practicing and staying match-fit in his time away from Madhya Pradesh's travelling team.

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Ashutosh Sharma on support received at Railways

After getting a job in the Railways, Ashutosh Sharma gradually began to get consistent opportunities. He was grateful for the way the Railways showed trust in him and he repaid their faith by scoring a hundred on his Ranji Trophy debut in January this year.

On this, Ashutosh stated:

"They (Railways) made me play Under-25 then they gave me a chance in T20s, and I did well as well. It was tough to come out of that (depression), but I had the belief that I would do it and am doing it."

Ashutosh has a career strike rate of 196.50 in the T20 format and certainly has shown the potential to become a top-quality finisher with more game time.