In This Together

Part of the team

There were absolutely zero leads to find Robin Rawal. His jailbreak was highly publicized, and as entire India knew about him and was unable to find him, the ICT's morale wasn't very high.

In October, India toured Australia, and it wasn't a cakewalk like defeating SA at home. Virat travelled separately to Australia but booked rooms same as the team's at all the venues.

On the eve of the first ODI, Rohit and Shikhar were sprawled in the former's room, and at one point the topic turned to the match.

"We won the last series earlier this year, so I think we can do it," said Rohit, but he didn't sound very convinced.

"India with and without Virat makes such a huge difference to our confidence," sighed Shikhar.

"And our investigation is heading nowhere!" said Rohit, hitting a pillow in frustration.

"Mahi bhai stayed back in India--he'll do something," said Shikhar, rescuing the pillow from Rohit's wrath.

"Virat is on the phone with Mahi bhai half the time these days. Hope they're hatching a plot," said Rohit, lying down on the bed with a sigh.

"Virat's quite stressed out most of these days, have you seen?" asked Shikhar.

"Yes, and I've been meaning to tell you--let's not bother him about the cricket related planning anymore like we did during the SA series," said Rohit.

"You're right; he doesn't have to worry about this too," agreed Shikhar.

The next day, at breakfast, captain Rohit and vice captain Shikhar were huddled together, talking about the toss and team selection.

Virat came down and automatically slipped into the seat beside Rohit.

"Morning, Virat," said Rohit and Shikhar together.

"Why do you two look so serious?" asked Virat.

"Just discussing a few things," said Rohit.

They changed the topic then, and Virat realised that he had been expecting them to ask his opinion about whatever they had been discussing about--because that was what always happened.

Virat didn't read too much into that, though, then.

___________

It was a hard-fought series, and Virat always found Rohit and Shikhar discussing strategies, sometimes with the other seniors like Jinks, Bhuvi and Jaddu.

After a while, he started finding it impossible to ignore the feeling that he wasn't part of the team anymore.

Then, with the series levelled at 2-2, India won the fifth ODI in a nail-biter.

Jassi defended 4 off the last over, and watching his team celebrating wildly on the field, everyone smothering Jassi with hugs, and the huge grins all around, Virat, inspite of his own happiness, felt fearfully lonely in the dressing room.

As he was sitting alone and worrying himself, Rohit and Shikhar came in noisily, laughing about something.

Looking around at them, Virat realized, for the first time in his life, why Rohit used to get mad at him when he got too close to AB, or Rahul, or anyone.

It's not a nice feeling to see your best friend one in one with someone else.

"We've decided we want you with us when we're taking the trophy, Virat," said Rohit.