It's important to look after your mental state: Miller

Experienced South African batsman David Miller has stressed on the need to look after mental health, saying it is important to take time off from a demanding sport like cricket.

Miller, who featured in the World Cup, the Indian Premier League and the tour of India in a hectic schedule this year, had recently taken time off to get back his focus.

"I have taken some time off over the last couple of months. I have been in the Kruger (National Park) recently to just get away from the demands of the game," Miller was quoted as saying in Sport24.co.za.

"It's really important to look after your mental state during your career and it is something that moving forward I am going to pay a lot more attention to.

"Cricket is a sport that so much can go against you that you need to have time to reflect. Hopefully, I still have a lot of years left playing cricket but I want to make sure that I look after myself mentally."

India skipper Virat Kohli on Wednesday recalled a phase in his career when he had battled "end of the world" thoughts but didn't know how to even communicate them.

The mental health of elite cricketers has come into the spotlight after star batsman Maxwell took a break to deal with his unspecified problems followed by young batsman Nic Maddinson.

On Thursday, Australian batsman Will Pucovski, 21, pulled out of the race to make it to the Test team for the Pakistan series due to his ongoing battle with mental health issues.