A/N: 15 years of Virat in intl and I'm truly lucky to have witnessed this madness since 2011. Nobody and I mean NOBODY will know just how he smashed peak Malinga in Australia, and had the Aussie crowd fall for him in his chubby phase, nobody will know how he fought and fought so hard to win trophies for his team as a captain or as a player (not that others haven't). They'll never know how much he was hurting in those 3 years like we witnessed it. These new cricket fans will only ever see him as the guy who choked in the KOs of all 3 WCs he's played, they'll blame him for us not winning any T20 WC after 2007 even though he ended those tournaments as the highest run getter for our side. They'll call it statpadding. But we know. WE KNOW everything he's given and that's enough. My heart skips beats just thinking of the day he inevitably retires.
Anyway. Fair warning, this one's a bit of a dialogue heavy chapter. A lot of Vi-Jinks-Jaddu and mild, very mild undertones of RohiRat.
Ro was upset with himself. MI had won the match sure but he wasn't able to contribute much with the bat. Ishan, Surya and TD were able to finish the match off and Venky Iyer's century had gone in vain. He could still faintly hear the loud music from the team room as the team was celebrating and he grinned a little, atleast his team was happy, that's all he's ever wanted.
Ro's phone pinged with a message. It was Jinks who had sent a link and curtly said,
Watch this Ro. We need to talk once you're done watching this. Going out to grab a cup of coffee with Vi and Jaddu now.
Ro stared at that text confused and then jealousy set in,
OYE! the three of u always do this to me! u never go out with me but as soon as Vi asks to go out the two of u nod and go along. It's not fair.
But he did click on that link cheeks puffed out.
He was directed to the Jio Cinema page, RCB Vibe: Virat From the Heart, he automatically grinned watching Virat grin like that with Robbie. He grumbled to himself, listening to Virat gush about how he loved being back with the team and doing all those ad shoots,
"IPL ki wakth ithna khush honi ki jarurat nahi hei gadhe."
But then Virat got talking about THAT phase. Those cursed two and half years. Ro remembered it like yesterday how Vi would more often than not give them all fake smiles which became more frequent after the WTC and he was in a position he couldn't even say anything that'd make Virat feel better because he didn't know what to say.
"I was willing to accept that when I go back and play..it might be the last month of me playing competitive cricket and I'm absolutely okay with it."
"I don't have many people asking me, "Are you okay? What's going on?""
Ro clenched his eyes shut, guilt hitting him tenfold. It was no secret he and Virat weren't the same after the 2019 WC but they were still best friends. Back in 2020 it wasn't that much of a bother that Virat hadn't scored a century in a while, he had been trying so hard to lead from the front though. But then come 2021 , test form had taken a huge dip, questions were being raised, they lost the WTC, Virat stepped down from T20i and T20 captaincy, they got kicked out in grp stage of the WC, then that press conference. He still hadn't asked if he was okay.
Nail in the coffin was Virat stepping down from test captaincy that next year without telling anyone. Rohit was having a shitty IPL later and he couldn't be there for Virat when he hit the worst kind of low in IPL. Then that 6 week break Virat took before Asia Cup, he had come back feeling rejuvenated. The rest as they say was history but Ro remembers, he remembers all those lost looks Virat sported before that break, he remembers watching Virat beat himself up over a wrong shot in the nets, he remembers the frustrated screams Vi would let out when he thought nobody was around after their practice sessions, all those unshed tears he'd force back. Ro witnessed it all but he couldn't fully help.
