Women's T20 World Cup 2023: Nat Sciver-Brunt opens up on life after mental health break

England's batting all-rounder Nat Sciver-Brunt took a break from the game last year to focus on her mental health and well-being and is now back for the ongoing Women's T20 World Cup in South Africa.

Natalie Sciver-Brunt took a three-month break to look after her mental health and well-being. It was a fruitful return to the game for her as she became the top run-getter for the side on their recent tour to the West Indies. She also won the Player of the Series in the ODI format for her consistent performances. 

England are grouped alongside big teams like India, the West Indies, Pakistan and neighbours Ireland in Group B of the Women's T20 World Cup Points table. Their first game is against the West Indies on February 11, 2023. The right-handed batter scored a fifty in the first official World Cup warm-up game against South Africa but didn't take part in the second warm-up game against New Zealand. 

Sciver-Brunt spoke to ESPNcricinfo about her time off from the game and how it has helped her. She said, "Taking myself out, it's not really a thing that I've had to do previously in my career. I'd always try and give my everything to the team and for us to win, to the group, so actually taking the time to think am I going to be okay with it? Is it going to affect my performance, that was really what I wanted to try and figure out and I was happy that I was in a place where it wouldn't." 

"Once I did go home, it just felt like it was the right thing. I might have got home and thought, 'I feel fine, I should go back,' but taking myself out of it and getting home, then I knew that it was definitely the right thing to do. Allowing myself to take myself out, it was a weird thing because in our team that's not really happened before and I don't like to miss things. I want to do absolutely everything that we need to do in order to play, so my mentality is not usually, 'this isn't right, I need to step back."

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