“It’s been a journey of hard work, perseverance, dedication and immense courage to get to this point in my cricket career. However, I’ve been coping with severe anxiety related to the sport for a while now,” he wrote.
“I felt trapped. I’ve pushed myself through all the distress so far, but now I fee the need to put my mental health and well-being above all else. And so, I’ve decided to take an undefined sabbatical from cricket. This lovely sport is an integral part of my life and I hope to be back on the field when the time is right,” he added.
Son of industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, Aryaman, a left-handed batsman, has played age-group cricket for Madhya Pradesh before first making it to the senior Ranji side and debuting in 2017. He has so far featured in nine first-class games, eight of which came during the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy.
Rajasthan Royals had bought Aryaman before 2018 IPL season. He did not get a chance to be part of the Rajasthan playing XI over the last two seasons and was one of the players who had been released by the Rajasthan-based franchise before the 2020 Indian Premier League (IPL) auction, which took place in Kolkata on Thursday.
Aryaman’s sabbatical comes at a time when many cricketers are opening up to the possibility that they need time away from the game to deal with this kind of illness.
Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has stepped away from cricket citing mental health issues during the T20I series against Sri Lanka in October. He recently made a return to professional cricket and is currently playing in the Big Bash League.