I was completely into depression during my first season with RCB: Robin Uthappa

Veteran batter Robin Uthappa has revealed he had to go through the worst phase of his career during IPL 2009. Uthappa played for the Mumbai Indians in 2008 and was transferred to the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the next season. He managed to score 175 runs in 15 games for RCB in IPL 2009, with just one half-century to his name despite the franchise reaching the finals of the edition.

He made up for it with an excellent season in 2010, when he scored 374 runs in 16 games at an average of 31.16 and a phenomenal strike rate of 171.55. The right-hander hit three half-centuries with the highest score of an unbeaten 68 in the 2010 season.

Uthappa said that he was going through depression during the 2009 season with RCB and explained how he struggled throughout the season. He added that he heard from Mumbai Indians that he would not be able to play if he did not sign the transfer papers.

I didn’t play well even for one game that season: Robin Uthappa

“I was going through something in my personal life and I was completely into depression during my first season with RCB. I didn’t play well even for one game that season. The only game in which I did well was when I was dropped and picked again. I played thinking that I really needed to do something in this match. Someone from MI had told me that if I didn’t sign the transfer papers, I’d not get to play in the XI for MI,” Uthappa told in R Ashwin’s youtube channel.

“I feel like I played during the best phase of RCB. It was a phase in IPL where the first year was a lot of fun because everyone was finding ground. I think from the second year onwards, it became really big. So, I was along with Zaheer Khan and Manish Pandey. I was one of the first people to be transferred in IPL. For me, it became extremely difficult because my loyalties were completely laid out with MI at that point. It happened a month before the IPL and I refused to sign the transfer papers,” he added.