Beginning of The End

VI

The boys laughed at the scene, and Rohit finally let Jassi go, who ended up coughing loudly. "I didn't even do it that hard," Rohit muttered when he saw the way he was holding his neck.

"That's what she said." Hardik's singsong voice came from behind them and, he pumped his fist with Yuzi.

Rohit was about to tell him off when all their phones beeped at the same time. They looked at each other in confusion and pulled their phones out.

It was the new team schedule for the upcoming t20 matches.

Rohit didn't know if he had ever felt angrier. How dare they announce the squad without as much as asking the captain once? 

He couldn't believe what Ravi bhai and the selection committee had done. But before the rage took over his mind, his eyes stopped at the fourth name on the list and, he felt his limbs going numb.

Rohit Sharma (Captain)

KL Rahul (wicket-keeper)

Ravindra Jadeja

Virat Kohli

Mayank Agrawal

Devdutt Padikkal

Ajinkya Rahane (Vice-captain)

Hardik Pandya

Yuzvendra Chahal

Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Kuldeep Yadav

Jasprit Bumrah

Mohammad Siraj

Manish Pandey

Varun Chakravarty

It had been exactly three weeks. Virat had been like a gust of wind that disappeared before they could register his arrival.

The only proof of his presence being the fading bruise on Rohit's jaw.

He had been too guilty to defend his actions from that day in front of the team. But no one said anything to him. Maybe, because like Ritika, even they understood that he hadn't meant any of that.

Mahi bhai had left the next day without saying anything either. Later that week, when Rohit called him, both had a silent agreement that they wouldn't talk about the fight and instead went on to talk about topics unrelated to cricket.

There was a similar unspoken rule in the team as well. No one mentioned Virat anymore.

But when Rohit saw his name on the list, he knew things would have to change now.

"So he's back?" Rohit asked Jinx in a quiet voice as he saw the vice-captain walking inside and, the entire locker room turned to him for an answer.

"Back for good." With a frim confirmation from Jinx, they knew the shunned name would once again echo in their ears now.

*****

Chaos- the only word that could describe their first morning in London.

Ritika had stayed at her friend's house the previous night and, none of them remembered to get an extra key to Rohit's room. So the team had to spend over twenty minutes banging on Rohit's door that morning.

When they finally walked down to the ground half an hour late, Hardik managed to trip on the stairs and began shouting that he had twisted his ankle. That added another ten minutes to their delay.

Though none of them said anything, they all knew why they were late. Somewhere it was deliberate because none of there had hardly been any time to prepare themselves.