'Hard to not to take to heart when someone calls you sh*t' - Peter Handscomb on battling social media abuse

Peter Handscomb has revealed how the criticism on social media over his poor outings for Australia affected his mental state. The Australian batter, who last played an international game in 2019, has made it to Australia A squad for the Sri Lanka tour on the back of his impressive domestic form in the Sheffield Shield where he scored 697 runs for Victoria at an average of 49.78.

The 31-year-old has played 16 Tests, 22 ODIs and two T20I’s so far for his country and he has never been able to settle himself in the playing XI despite providing the wicketkeeping option as well. Although he has unusual footwork and technique, he plays the spinners quite well and was deemed to become as effective as Steve Smith. However, he could not replicate the potential and inconsistency cost him his place on the side.

‘How dare you be in the Australian side’ – Peter Handscomb reveals how he was targeted

Handscomb mentioned that Facebook and Twitter were the two platforms that people used to criticise him. He revealed about receiving messages that said he does not deserve to be in the Australian side. He added that he was young at the time and said that it hard to be mentally stable during the times. He was delighted to have gotten off the burdens during the 2017 Ashes and noted about it helped him massively.

“I found those two platforms probably the worst in terms of people having direct access to you, to just randomly sledge you and take you down. When someone’s taking the time out to directly message you, calling you s**t or ‘How dare you be in the Australian side’ – that kind of stuff – it’s hard not to take that to heart, especially (given) I was quite young at the time. I got off them during the Ashes (in 2017-18) and that was definitely one of the biggest things that helped,” Handscomb told cricket.com.au.

“Being able to either not listen to it or zone it out (is important). Which is easy to do at a state level because there’s not that much scrutiny and fewer cameras to sort of pick apart your technique. If that does happen again, and I am lucky enough to play for Australia again then, yeah, I think I’m better equipped to deal with everything that comes with it,” he added.