Bade Sapne

◇ Part 2 ◇

Shubman's POV

Being captain of GT, it's all new to me. I'm surrounded by seniors, and many have much more experience than me. I'm just a young cricket player with big dreams.

Bade sapne.

I look around at my team, wondering how this match will go. My first match as captain. If we win this, I'll probably end up jumping up and down in a corner, screaming in happiness.

My heart begins to pound, as the light leading to the pitch grows bigger and bigger. I find myself entranced by the perfectly cut blades of grass, just the sheer size of the place. Wankhede Stadium.

I see the umpire in bright pink, standing near the pitch, and my old captain, Hardik Pandya, next to him. It feels a little odd to see him there. Just last year we were working together, on the same team. We reached the finals, twice, together.

And now, he's my opponent. The dark blue of GT is what I was used to. Now, seeing him in bright Mumbai blues makes me feel uneasy. Concerns me. I've never had to do this before.

My brisk walk becomes a jog, as I try to cover the distance between me and the pitch. Hardik bhai was standing there, ready and smiling. I guess he understood how I was feeling, being captain for the first time.

When he was still in GT, he always used to look out for me. Even today, he was doing the same. A look of sympathy could be seen in his eyes, a look of understanding, a gesture of "it'll be okay".

He was level-headed. Something I really admired about him. Of course, he could get angry quickly, but that never affected the credibility of his decisions. He understood the game well, and knew how to implement his knowledge to turn the tides in his favour.

But now I knew how he worked, how his mind worked. And I had to use it against him. It was the only way we could win. Play the man, not the odds. This was a batting pitch, and he would expect us to pick batting first. But if I won the toss, I would choose to bowl. Just to play with his mind.

After creating a quick game plan in my head, I nodded at him, telling him to go ahead with the toss.

With confidence, I said, "Heads."

The sound of the coin turning became amplified and the noise from the crowd was drowned out. My focus was only on the coin. To my delight, the coin tipped onto the heads side.

"We choose to field first."

Hardik bhai looked a little confused, but quickly hid his expression. One of the first lessons he'd taught me. Never show your emotions to the opponent. I didn't show mine either.

The team gestured to me through the gallery, asking what I had chosen. I was confident in our bowling ability.
I held my hands together in the keeping position to tell them we were fielding.

Within a few minutes, they were down on the field, and I called Rashid bhai to me to have a quick chat, and a word of advice, which ended with me deciding to put him first in the bowling attack.

And so, the match began. The first 3 balls were dots, making me feel confident in my decision. Watching Rohit bhai bat made me feel that I was on the wrong team. He'd always been my captain in internationals. And here I was standing in the slip position, praying on his downfall.

But bad things come to those with bad thoughts. Rohit bhai put me in my place with a magnificent six. We'd come to the fifth ball of the first over, and Rashid bhai took a shorter run-up this time.

I moved myself to the boundary, as Rashid bhai had instructed me to. Rohit bhai swung and it would've gone for a boundary, but I dove to the ground, all of my efforts centred on stopping it, saving a certain four runs for our team, and the two batsmen decided not to take the single.

Now Ishan was on strike. My best friend in the international team. We'd done everything together. Heck, we'd even shared a business-class bed on an aeroplane together. And now, again, I was captaining a team whose hopes rested on him playing badly. My best friend.

And once again, he punished our team, hitting Rashid bhai's short ball for a big six. It flew into the crowd, and it seemed like someone caught it. From this distance, if I strained my eyes, I could just about make out two girls, one holding something, most probably the ball, and the other taking a photo.

I rolled my eyes at their childishness. It's just a ball, god, what is wrong with them? I turned to look at the big screen to see if they were done with their little photo session. The girl holding the ball was jumping up and down with excitement, a big smile on her face.

For a second, I was drawn in by her happiness. I wanted to smile that big. I wanted to jump in excitement. I wanted to cheer for someone. At that moment in time, I wanted everything she had. But as a cricket player, those smiles didn't come easily. You had to play above and beyond for someone to even notice you. To recognise you'd even made a dent in the game.

Then I realised I was getting distracted. Focus, Shubman, focus. The girl threw the ball and seeing herself on screen, covered her eyes and a pale blush coloured her cheeks. I chuckled. That's kinda cute... Are chup beto na, Shubman. Focus karo.

I shook her out of my head and fixed my eyes on the pitch. The next few overs went very slowly. Each ball either brought no runs or a boundary. There were no singles, no wickets. Just dots and boundaries. I eventually got fed up of all this, and decided to call in Mohammed Shami.

He'd been a superstar in the World Cup, and I knew he would shine here too. I quickly jumped to my favourite position again- slip. Rohit bhai ko mein hi catch karunga. Like magic, Shami bhai's first ball brushed just over the stumps, encouraging an "ooh" from the crowd.

The next ball flicked off the edge of Rohit bhai's bat and flew straight into my hands. I threw the ball up in the air with excitement, and we all ran in for a team huddle.

The next few overs were aggressive, with wickets falling quickly, and the team's morale was building greatly as well. Soon, the 20 overs brought the innings to an end, and we all headed inside for a quick break.

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A/N

Heyyy you ;))

How's your day been?

So, that's part two for you! How did you find it? This one WAS a little shorter, but I kinda went off on a tangent about the World Cup in the previous chapter, so don't blame me 😅

Also, by the time I publish this, this will be old news, but how do you guys feel about Hardik Pandya being made captain of MI? Rohit's era was iconic 😭

And, just out of curiosity, which IPL team do you guys support? For me, it's RCB all the way ❤️

That's it from me today :)

Enjoy the next chapter <33