1st April 2021
The limited over series against England was over now. India won both the the t20 and ODI series and all players were staring to leave for their respective team's bio bubble to play IPL 2021. Virat reached in the RCB camp and after 5 days of quarantine, he started practice. He was talking with Ab, when
"Kyle Jamison from new zealand reporting, skipper."
He turned to find his new RCB teammate Kyle Jamieson was greeting him with a nervous smile. Virat smiled and shook his hand.
"Welcome to the team, mate. It's so good to see you again!"
Virat met this young kiwi all rounder back in 2020, when team india went to play against New Zealand. He made his debut against india in both test and odi series and performed unbelievably well. He was one of the main reasons behind india's whitewash in test series and more importantly he managed to out virat multiple times. Virat was so impressed by his all round performance that he convinced RCB's owners to buy him in the Auction. They agreed and Jamieson was brought by a whooping 15 crore.
"All good? Are you enjoying coming here or not?"
Virat smilingly asked
"Yeah, it's amazing, skip. Playing with the greats like you and Ab sir is the best thing i could ask for and everyone else are very friendly and helpful too. Thank you for giving me a chance like this."
Jamieson happily said.
Virat smiled and patted his shoulders.
"Glad to hear this, mate. Go and practice well. Oh and you don't need to be that formal. You can call me virat. We're teammates after all."
Jamieson nodded smilingly and left to practice with Navdeep and Harshal. Virat was keenly observing his bowling styles and Ab, knowing his biscuit's evil mind very well shook his head in disapproval.
"Biscuit, you know that this is not fare. You shouldn't manipulate that young player like this. What impression you'll make in front of hjm!"
Virat swiftly dismissed Abd's advice.
"What? I'm not doing anything wrong, biscuit. I'm just going to ask him to bowl me in the nets with the Duke bowl (which was going to use in Wtc fjnal). I'm sure he'll never ever refuse me. I'll have some practice before wtc, so i could have advantage against him. Why do you think i pressurized the owners to brought him? He's a key player of nz and having him in our team is beneficial for both the team and me too. So you sit back and watch."
Virat went to the nets. Ab sighed and shook his head. He knows that it'll not be that simple. Especially knowing the brilliant cricketing mind of national team captain of kyle Jamison.
Virat went straight to Jamieson, who was busy discussing with harshal, dan and navdeep. Virat cheerfully smiled and hugged Jamieson from behind.
"Jamie, my boy! How's your net session going? You're training so hard. I'm so proud of you. Let me know if you need something. Or do you need to rest for sometimes?"
Jamieson confusingly looked at virat and managed to smile, when harshal and navdeep almost throw the water they're drinking. They looked at each other.
"Since when our captain became so sweet during net practice!"
They both said in the same time. Virat glared at both of them and managed to took Jamison out from there.
"You know Jamie, the first time i saw you playing against us, i knew that you'll be a great player someday. You even managed to grab a position in the nz squad for Wtc finals in such a short time. Oh speaking of wtc, if you ever want to practice with the duke balls with someone, don't hesitate and call me immediately. I'll help you to practice with it."
Jamison suddenly stopped walking and looked at virat for a moment. Virat was being happy, thinking that he's successful in his plan. But suddenly Jamieson burst into laughing, leaving virat confused.
"Hey jamie, what happen? Did i said something funny?"
Virat raised his eyebrows.
"Skip......skipper kane was right. He..... already warned me that you're crazy to win the WTC trophy and you might do something like this. So he warned me before to be extra careful to you when talking about my bowling styles. At first i thought he's just being a little bit overthinker. But now...... i got it why you two are such close friends......"
Jamieson managed to say these between his constant laughter. Virat was giving him a '😒 are you serious ' face. Jamieson tried his best to surpass his laugh.
"Yeah, I'm.....I'm really sorry skipper virat, but kane already refused to.....
"No,no it's ok Jamie. It's my fault actually. I shouldn't have asked you. As a professional cricketer and the captain of the Indian team i know that nation always comes first. So you don't worry. We still are friends and you the key member of RCB. I'm going to practice. You can go too."
Virat sincerely said. He knew that what Jamieson said was right and he shouldn't have asked it. But for now, the only thing he wanted to do was smashing a certain Williamson's head for being irritatingly intelligent. He fumingly went to call kane. Jamieson watched virat going to whine like a 5 year old child infront of his opponent captain for not letting his player sharing his bowling action. He smiled. Kane was right. Virat kohli is the best team mate you could ever ask for. He knows when he should behave strictly and when he should annoy his team mates.
"He's truly God Gifted."
Virat went straight and dialed kane's number. After sometimes, when kane picked up the call
"KANE STUART WILLIAMSON! How could you do this to me. YOU REFUSED JAMIESON TO BOWL ME IN THE NETS! You know that he's capable enough to got me out in the finals. Ok ok i know it was wrong of me to take advantage of being the captain. but you! How did you know that i was going to ask him about it? Are you a astrologer or something? Don't tell me you're having a prediction class from Jofra Archer! Wait did rohit told you ? Or it was Ab? Oh my god, don't tell me you've installed CCTVs in my room! Kane i swear....."
Kane felt his ears will be blast by virat's constant rantings. He took a deep breath and yelled
"VIRAT PREM KOHLI! WOULD YOU BE KIND ENOUGH TO LET ME EXPLAIN THIS ALL OR YOU'RE PLANNING TO BLABBER TILL THE 18TH JUNE!"
virat immediately fell silent. He never thought that a gentleman like kane could ever got angry like this. For some reasons, he was feeling proud for being the only person in the whole world, who managed to piss both kane and mahi bhai, the 2 coolest cricketers."
(🤣 what an achievement vi!)
"Ok, ok I'm giving you a chance to explain. Now don't need to thank me for being such a understanding and humble person."
Virat rose his collar (imaginary). Kane was searching a place to bang his head. Who could ever thought that virat kohli, the greatest and most feared batsman of modern generation was nothing but a crazy and idiotic childish person from inside. He took long breathes to calm his nerves. His SRH team mates witnessing a angry Williamson is the last thing he wanted.
"Dearest Virat, i DID NOT installed CCTVS in your room nor anyone told me about your evil plans. I just used a simple thing called 'Common sense ', which of course you don't have. We played against each other enough to know these simple things about each other. So kindly STOP EATING MY BRAIN AND LET ME PRACTICE PEACEFULLY."
virat pouted angrily.
"Humph, Meanie kane. I hate you. I won't talk to you ever again."
He hung the call. Kane sighed.
"God knows, how did he handled this 5 year old child in the body of a 32 year old international cricketer from all these years! He really wanted to ask MSD and his other team mates how the hell do they handle their childish captain!"
Virat grumbled and decided to call his best friend, who was peacefully sleeping in his team's bio bubble. Till now at least!
"Vi...... you idiot, why the hell you're always behind my sleeps. You didn't let me sleep, when we're in the ICT bio bubble and now when i finally got a chance to sleep peacefully, you ruined it!"
Rohit yelled at his best friend.
"Why Everyone's keep yelling at me today? I hate all of you."
Virat whined. It was enough for rohit to immediately sit down form his sleep.
"What!!!! Who did yell on you, vi?"
Noone can yell on his vi. It's only his, mahi bhai's and jink's job to yell at him.
Virat told everything happened.
"I hate kane, ro. How could he spoil our master plan? Itni mehnat se soch ke yeh plan banaya tha humne. Mai Jamieson aur tu boult ke against mast practice karenge aur phir wtc apni! Now what to do?"
Virat whined. Rohit shook his head in disbelief. Did his idiot bestie actually took his sarcasm seriously!
"Listen Mr over intelligent kohli. I told you that in sarcasm. Why would we need that? We played against Trent enough to know about his actions. And about Jamieson, i don't think he'll be that much threat for us. Yes i agree he did preform unexpectedly well against us last year. But recently his form is not that good. We solved almost every challenge in front of us and I'm sure we'll pass this final one too. So stop worrying about WTC final and go practice. We're going to face each other in the first match. Don't worry everything will be fine."
Rohit tried to comfort virat.
"Hmm, may be you're right Ro. Ok bye I'm going to practice. See you soon."
Virat said and caught the call. Rohit sighed.
"He's taking more and more stress. But that's because this is his biggest dream. God, he tried his best to reach here. Please i hope you won't do injustice to that idiot soul."
He silently prayed.
Virat was sitting in the pool side, after talking to Rohit. He knew what Rohit said was true. He shouldn't stress that much. But how he'll make him understand that his inner voice was telling him something bad is going to happen! Virat wanted himself proven wrong. But seeing their past few knock out records, he doesn't think it'll be that easy. He took a deep breath. No he can't.
He's the captain of the team. It's his job to motivate his team. It's his duty to bind them together. He couldn't let them be demotivated. He have to side his own personal anxieties and uneasiness. He sighed before going back to the field.
"It's not going to be that simple!"