Virat Kohli was napping. Yes, contrary to popular belief Virat Kohli do power naps too and he was having a very pleasant one right now. He was feeling very relaxed and there was ample time to spare before dinner. So, Virat was napping on a rocking chair with eyes closed and soothing music playing in the background. Even Nush was sleeping peacefully.
But Karma was definitely having a knock-on Virat's door as at that precise moment. His suite's doorbell was pressed like a thousand times, someone was also banging on his door with great enthusiasm. Rubbing his eyes, checking the time, yawning Virat went to check who was banging on his door.
He was actually surprised to see Miyaan, Yuzi, Nav and Washy grinning at him. They were almost about to knock on his face in their excitement and Virat actually didn't know what happened to them? What they did now? God, he hopes not something absolutely crazy.
"Kya kiya tumne? Don't tell me, you added glitter in AB's gloves again? No, no...did you paint Finchy's face or what?" Virat asked all of them absolutely suspiciously. They had done that like loads of time and then came to his room to hide from them and then Virat was in super dilemma whether to laugh at the victims of the pranks or to save the kids from the victims.
"YOU'RE OUR CAPTAIN, BHAIYAA" The kids yelled in sync, hugging Virat tightly. Virat embraced all of them but he looked at them concernedly too. He knows he is their captain. Why are they screaming that now? What happened to them? Did they hit their head or what? Did someone hit them with a bat?
"I know, I'm Captain re," Virat said shaking his head as the kids walked past him and entered his suite. Virat looking at them all amused. The kids kinda have unofficially adopted his room as their rooms. Plus, their dear bhabi also adored and encouraged these bandars a lot. They were her ladla devars. So, most of the time Virat found one or more than one in his room. Currently, their beaming smiles were becoming quite disconcerting for Virat.
"Well," Virat started looking at them still quite confused with their behaviour.
"I'm in the TEST SQUAD BHAIYAAAAAAAAA" Miyaan hoped all excited around Virat.
"I'm in T-20 squad, BHAIYAAAAAA" Washy said equally excited, accompanying Miyaan into jumping around Virat.
"I'm in all the squads, Bhaiyaa," Nav smiled giving a very bashful smile.
"I'm too, I told all these chintu logs, I'll be, it's not surprising at all," Yuzi shrugged in his usual self-boasting manner "Btw you're the captain. So congratulations too...."
"Thank you," Virat replied flatly.
"Yeah, you're welcome. Voh toh mujhe captain bana rhe the I said no, no, Virat bhaiya is fine for me," Yuzi said still full of his self-boasting quips.
"Ha, ha,ha....very thank you chahhal Ji, bs aapki hi toh kripa hai hum pr," Virat said dryly rolling his eyes as he took small steps towards Yuzi. The other kids already getting his plan, they surrounded Yuzi and when Virat finally started his tickle attack on Yuzi. Yuzi had nowhere to go.
"Virat...Virat Bhaiyaaaa...stop...stop, yrr" Yuzi howled amidst bouts of laughter.
"Did someone say something?" Virat asked like he couldn't hear Yuzi at all.
"Nops, noppa, not at all," The kids answered sounding totally innocent and oblivious about Yuzi's words.
"yrr...guys, stop, stop na...Virat bhaiyaaa, Chintu logoooooo" Yuzi yelled gasping, laughing because of the tickle tackle.
Finally, the kids and Virat took pity on Yuzi and let him go. Virat congratulated all the kids, hugging them, letting their happiness wash over him. He knew the feeling, the excitement, the nerves and about everything.
"So guys, I know you've not reached your peak abilities yet but I want you too. I want you all to be in your best in Australia," Virat said strangely serious for a moment.
The kids nodded vigorously.
"Yes, CAPTAIN,"
"And a secret, the captain of the Indian team isn't a very serious, formidable type of guy. so, you don't need to be afraid of him at all," Virat said conspiratorially winking at the boys, his eyes twinkling with amusement and glee.
The kids nodded beaming at Virat.
"Well, he can be total khadoos and Akdu insaan too," Yuzi added solely for the sake of contradicting Virat.
"Really Tili," Virat asked flexing his fingers threateningly in Yuzi's direction.
Yuzi backed out instantly laughing innocently at Virat's direction. Well, he wasn't interested in being tickled to death at all.
"So, the squad got announced. Cool, I need to check it too," Virat said thoughtfully, he had a gist but he didn't know the final selection as of yet.
"Areey bhai, we will inform na. I've got it memorized," Yuzi spoke eagerly. He was actually looking forward to make his Virat bhaiyaa avoid all social media sites. Yuzi by chance had the fortune of reading some comments and he wanted to bash some people's head already.
"Here, I got the mail," Virat grinned showing the mail he received from the BCCI.
Team India T20I squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (vice-captain and wicket-keeper), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy.
Team India ODI squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul (vice-captain & wicket-keeper), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur.
Team India Test squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Mohd. Siraj
Four additional bowlers - Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kartik Tyagi, Ishan Porel and T. Natarajan - will travel with the Indian contingent.
"It's a good team. We will do very well there and I hope we can create a similar environment there too," Virat said optimistically, trying and successfully hiding his worry from his kids except for Yuzi.
He was worried about Ro. They hadn't been in much contact during this season. Virat was kinda far too busy with handling the kids and Nushkie's cravings and swings. Same was with Ro, he was too busy with his team and Sam. They hadn't been in much contact. But Vi had warned that idiot, not once, not twice but many times to take care of himself and his health. He couldn't complete his first rehab due to lock down and Corona. He had to return home. He was continuing the home exercises. And Virat told Ro to be extra-careful but does that idiot really ever listens to his bits of advice? Nops, not at all.
He is mad screaming about fitness and stuff, isn't he? Virat really wanted to scream at Rohit right now. Why doesn't that guy listens to him? This squad lacks experience like really lacks experience. Now, who'll talk to them and tell them how to do things? Who'll help him with things? Virat didn't know. He just knew he couldn't let the kids know about his troubles. He laughed with them, accompanied them to dinner, sat with Shivam told the kid to be not quite discouraged. Practice hard and he'll be in the team soon too.
Virat made sure, he was with all the kids, made sure they weren't discouraged. He laughed with them, told them stories of his rejection days and stories in general. They spent some time together before they bid each other good night and went to their rooms.
Virat didn't go to his room though he went to the beach.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rahul was fuming. He was seconds away from bursting in flames. He had been told mid-match, the squad for Australia was declared and he was in it. Okay, that was all Rahul could think then, he didn't have much time to spend on it. He had a match to concentrate on.
After the match, a beaming Kuliya all but climbed on him and that washed away Rahul's worries about Kul. The Kid was in the team. It'll help his confidence a lot. After all, Kul had taken a five-wicket haul in England. He was a world-class bowler, just a little under the weather these days. He'll do good. They'll make sure of it. After all, they always had each other's back.
"Together," Kul whispered in Rahul's ears
"Forever," Rahul whispered back, equally happy.
They'll together again. The ICT, god, he was waiting for this from so long.
"Oye, don't keep me out of this hug. I'm going to be there too," Mayank all but screamed throwing himself over the two of them.
"I'm not going to share a room with you," Rahul announced haughtily.
"Yeah...yeah, why should the mighty vice-captain share room with lowly people like us?" Mayank spoke over dramatically feigning hurt. Shocking, Rahul.
"Vice-Captain??" Rahul demanded. He wasn't at all aware of this.
"You're the vice-captain" Both Kul and Mayank said in sync. Rahul kept on staring at them shocked, surprised totally startled. He didn't expect this at all. He thought his captainship stint during NZ was a one-time thing.
"Areey check it, if you don't believe us," Mayank said rolling his eyes at his flabbergasted friend.
They checked out the tweets by BCCI and yes, there it was written quite clearly that he was the vice-captain in T-20 and ODI. Odd, very, odd. Why did they make him the vice-captain? He was thinking this when his eyes, by chance, took in the replies to the tweet.
Every tweet against his Virat bhai and KL felt his blood freeze and boil at the same time.
"RCB lobbying, inside politics, Virat adopting Mayank and him, RCB vs AUS, a ploy to sidetrack Rohit,"
What the f**k?
Did they even know what they were speaking about?
RCB lobbying!! really! Whom they wanted huh?
Isn't Yuzi and Virat are like permanent in the Indian squad? Should they have dropped the captain and one of the best leg-break bowler of India? or the Captain? Tell this to Cricket Australia and see their reply.
Nav again had been part of ICT since 2019. He had done well in NZ too and they need a little experience. Rahul thinks, they can't just take all the untested and green players? Now can they?
Siraj in test match only and that too based on his red-ball stats, not IPL stats, if IPL was taken in consideration then he would have been in T-20 not Test.
Washy again had been part of ICT since 2017. He had played and wasn't totally new to international cricket. And did people really think they should take untested bowlers to Austraila based on just their IPL performance? And when those bowlers get bashed the same people will have the time of their lives trolling and demotivating the same players?
Beside these five who else in the fifteen member squads were from RCB? Rahul didn't know. He just knew people were totally mad. The comments about Mayank and him being adopted by Virat didn't hurt much. Well, he was Virat's kid and Rahul was really proud of that fact. People can take it in a as negative manner and light as they want, Rahul doesn't gives a single goddamned f**k about what they think and say, being Virat's kid won't ever be a negative thing for him.
The comments about Sky and trolling Virat using all of it though made Rahul seethe like an inferno. No, one was allowed to troll his Virat bhai using him as a bait if it made these mad trollers any good, he would say no to both the vice-captain position and even make himself unavailable for the series. They can give their Sky or anyone else they want in his place and if they fucking failed to perform. They shouldn't point their fingers at his Virat Bhai. They should take responsibility and resign from whatever they were doing.
Rahul would actually feel a vindictive pleasure highlighting them as the hate filled creatures they were in their workplace and locality. He'll feel even more pleasure watching how well they fared with everyone pointing at them, calling out their smallest mistakes, calling them panauti, wishing them dead and badmouthing their families every second. Rahul will actually pay to see that add police and a tour of lock up for cyber bullying and harassment.
"What a masterstroke. Justice for Rohit Sharma. Virat r u listening. Anushka will have miscarriage."
They were talking about his godchild, wishing harm on his bhabi and bhaiya and Rahul wasn't a forgiving man, when it came to his family.
"Actually I feel Kohli should die in some accident only that will make RCB win trophies,"
That was it for Rahul. No, one and he meant no one was allowed to wish for his big brothers death. Rahul didn't care if the whole world was against him, if, even ICT and Harry was against his Vi bhai, if they believed this internal politics shit or not. Rahul didn't and he won't let anything happen to his Vi bhai ever.
"They're disgusting" Kul spat with tears brimming in his eyes.
Rahul just nodded embracing Kul. He didn't think he will be able to stop if he speaks now. He was feeling just too angry and hurt. Mayank wrapped his arms around both his brothers. He was equally angry but right now, he was worried for Kul and Rah more.
One look ready to drown the world in his tears, the other looked ready to burn the whole wide world. Mayank didn't know which one was more dangerous. And people around them totally unaware of their condition.
"Kul, we need to leave now" Varun called for Kul, still not believing he is selected for ICT. Plus, Kul, the younger brother in KKR will be his senior in ICT. It was quite unbelievable.
"Hmm," Kul hummed still looking at Rah. They were locked in silent ICT convo while Mayank congratulated Varun knowing his bestie and adopted brother were far too involved in matter in the hand to think about anything else.
"RAH, give him a big hug from my side, alright and tell him he is the world's best brother and we love him and believe him and we don't want anyone else until he really listens alright," Kul told Rah walking away, he was so worried about his big brother and currently, he was also cursing KKR and their hotel location in Abu Dubai. Couldn't they have a hotel in Dubai too? A hotel near RCB's. His Virat bhai needs him and his hugs for godsake.
"I'll," Rahul promised.
Nodding, the trio walked back to their respective teams direction.
Kul sat beside Subh on the team bus ignoring about everyone. He glared at his phone and pondered what should he do? Subh who was quite sad with his performance this season. He couldn't quite play with the surroundings and last match, Virat bhai catching him with the scurf of his neck and advising and scolding him again reminded him of his elder brother Virat, who cared so much for him. Virat bhai's advise helped in this match but again it wasn't in winning cause and Subh was too disappointed with himself anyway.
"What happened Bhaiya?" Still, he asked noticing Kul's gloomy angry aura. Well, ICT brothers can always read each other.
"Bhaiya" Subh pestered getting no reply from Kul.
"Subh," Kul exhaled his name sighing full of despair.
"What happened" Subh asked suddenly very alert, ignoring about all the happy souls around him. Okay, he was happy for his friends selection and all. But his brother looked absolutely depressed and it couldn't be good news.
With a broken heart Kul informed Subh about everything hurled at Virat right now and how it affects Virat. Kul absolutely refused to beileve anything bad against his Virat bhaiya and Subh immediately agreed with Kul, equally vexed and sad.
"We will prove them all wrong. We won't lose like they wish us too. We won't fall apart. We will prove everyone wrong and Vi bhaiya right," Subh said determined looking at Kul. He will show that Virat bhaiya's belief in his wasn't misplaced, not at all.
"We will," Kul promised.
He'll play for his Virat bhaiya's honor.
Subh and Kul showed the messages against their Virat Bhaiya to Shrey, Rishu, Prithvi, Cherry, Shardul and RCB kids. They weren't quite sure of Jassi and Harry's stance yet with the MI account playing mind games. The reactions to their messages were instantaneous. They waned a war, right.
They were going to get a war.
A war that was going to be really-really hurtful for some people.
Virat's kids were pissed, enough was enough. The people were always behind their Virat bhaiya, wishing for his death like daily. They were hurting their Virat bhaiya and Virat bhaiya wasn't going to take action against them like ever. It didn't mean they won't.
They will and it won't end good.
It was their promise.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rahul was silent through out the entire bus journey. Mayank was equally worried and shimmering in muderous rage. He messaged to Manish bhaiya about the scenario, noticing people against Manish bhaiya's selection too. He wasn't getting trolled as much as Virat bhaiya. But no one ever gets trolled as much as Virat bhaiya too.
So, Mayank messaged Manish bhaiya his love and support and how happy he was to play with him again, just general non-incriminating stuff. Rahul was just silent through out the journey, texting someone but beside that totally closed-off and emitting a killer aura.
Mayank was worried.
Well, just about everyone. The moment the team bus reached their side of hotel. Rahul threw his luggage at Mayank ordering him to take everything inside and ran away towards the RCB side. Well, Mayank wasn't to be left behind too. He was hell worried too. He handed all their luggage to Shami bhaiya and Mandeep and raced after Rahul.
Leaving behind quite baffled people.
After, a very long race alongside the beach in KXIP dresses Mayank and Rahul succeeded in spotting their captain, their elder brother, sitting beside the beach with his legs drawn to his chest, his chin resting on his knees. He looked quite broken and personification of a poetically tragic, gloomy and depressed being staring at the ocean.
Sharing concerned, determined looks with each other.
Mayhul walked towards their brother.
"So, you planning to gift me white-beard Kohlito?" Rahul asked Virat as casually as he could, standing over his broken brother like his guardian.
"Rahuliyaaaaa, Monkuu" Virat exclaimed quite surprised but equally happy though his glassy red eyes were quite hurting Mayhul. They decided to lighten up the mood.
"Yups, missed you bro-man" Monku said flopping beside Virat, Rahul too.
Both were sitting on the either side of Virat forcing him to wrap his arms like wings around both of them.
"So singing sagar kinare here? Bossman" Rah teased, well-aware, distracting Virat from his worries will help.
"Hahaha, very funny Rahuliyaaa. You were brilliant, btw, both of you" Virat said, praising his kids always.
Mayhul grinned at Virat.
"Well, so planning to draw this scenario or what?" Rahul asked Virat, trying to take Virat's mind as far as possible from his worries. He will happily speak all night to do so.
"Why are you asking stupid questions, Rahuliyaa?" Virat asked rolling his eyes. He actually didn't expect anyone to come to him here.
"I'm not, I don't ask stupid things, VEEERAT, btw Kul asked me to hug you," Rahul said and before Virat could even react Mayhul had sandwiched him in a bone-crushing warn hug. Even Virat's yells of "Can't breathe" didn't make them let him go and finally Virat settled in, contend to let the kids hug him.
He needed their embrace too. He won't admit it though, they had the power to make him feel okay, specially Kul.
Mayhul shared a look, a silent promise to look after their Virat bhaiya. They won't let him feel lonely ever. They'll protect him and save him, even from his own demons. They'll look after their Virat bhaiya and anyone, anyone who tried to harm their Virat bhaiya will face their wrath.
It was a promise.
And the whole ICT was going to keep it.
~to be continued~
Planned it to be a one-shot, but alas it became a two shot.