BEHIND THE SCENES-Best Series Ever

When the stand in captain almost lobbed a flower vase at the captain

The second incident—a simple overheard conversation the night before Virat bhaiya left for India—sealed the deal in Jassi's heart. (The deal of becoming a leech to Jinks, I mean).

He was approaching Jinks bhaiya's room to tell him something, which he forgot as he heard a strangely desperate person speaking in Jinks bhaiya's voice inside the room.

"It's not going to work, Vi. I can't do it."

"You've done it before, you know," came Virat bhaiya's voice, calm and un-desperate.

"You were there last time!" Jassi had never heard Jinks bhaiya sound so scared. "You were carrying water to the field during the break!"

"You want me in the squad to carry water to the field?" Virat bhaiya asked, sounding baffled.

"Don't you dare joke!" cried Jinks bhaiya, his voice rising and nearing the threshold of hysteria.

"I wasn't joking," said Virat bhaiya defensively. "I just didn't get that part about me carrying water to—"

"Virat," spat Jinks bhaiya in a low, dangerous voice. "The water is not the point here. You're going away, and I can't handle a team in your absence, I don't have a clue about where to begin, Shami is injured, Rohit isn't back yet, Jaddu might not be fit before MCG, the bowling unit—it's so young...and inexperienced and—"

"You have Pujji and Ash to help you," said Virat bhaiya in a too-sensible voice that suggested to Jassi that they had had this conversation before. "And the younger ones, they're ours, too, it's not like you have to create a team out of a bunch of strangers like Kabir Khan had to do in Chak de India!"

Jassi peeped in discreetly and found Jinks bhaiya standing with his fists clenched. Virat bhaiya, on the other hand, was sitting on the couch, cross-legged, and looking up innocently at the furious figure glaring at him. At that point he had the good sense to go away, because deliberate eavesdropping was not a nice thing to do.

"There are too many kids who've never played in the national team, and all of them need to be mentored..."

"But, Jinks, look," said Virat brightly. "You and our coaches can mentor them peacefully, it won't be like Shubi and Washi's fathers are going to clash with you like Geeta's did in Dangal!"

Jinks extended his hand reflexively for any throwable thing within his reach and found a large, ornate flower vase.

"You make one more movie reference, Virat," he said. "and I throw this thing straight at your thick head. Do you want Viratee's first glimpse of her dad to be of one with a bandaged head?"

"Jinksy," said Virat, aggrieved.

Jinks never threatened violent stuff like Harry and Jaddu and er, Virat himself did.

"What?"

"You wouldn't throw that thing at me and break my skull," whined Virat. "You know you wouldn't."

And here Jinks had been expecting Virat to catch the point—which was something related to how much Virat was pissing him off at the moment and how worried he was—instead of grasping on to the materialistic vase.

Jinks swallowed a lump in his throat, torn between affection and anger as it hit him with full force how much he was going to miss this idiot, and how he was still refusing to take his fears seriously.

"Go away, Vi," he heard himself saying tiredly, lying down on his bed and turning over. "I'm not in the mood for jokes at the moment. We'll talk in the morning if you have time before leaving."