Broken Records

Bazballed?

Number five.

Their ranking on the points table had dropped from number two to number five.
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Twenty Eight runs.

They fell short of just twenty eight runs.
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Why was he even here?

Anyone with a sense of decency would have asked to be benched already.

But he didn't even have the guts to do that.

How Pathetic.
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The disappointed face of his coach and the wide eyed shock on the new comers faces after he got out on a duck kept flashing in his mind.

He wondered what they all thought of him now.

A bad investment?

A gamble they regretted?

A failure they gave Way too many chances to?

If only he had scored something... Anything...they could have a chance.

But he didn't. He couldn't score, he couldn't help in building a partnership, he couldn't do anything.

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His phone buzzed under his pillow.

He grabbed it on instinct and almost threw it back when he saw Yashasvi's name flash on the screen.

He really didn't feel like talking to anyone.

The image of his roommate holding the edge of his sleeve and holding onto him whenever he got nervous during their SA tour flashed in his mind.

He picked up the phone.

"Bhai, You up?
We're all in the dinning hall.
when are you coming?"

Dining hall?

"Yash...What time is it again?"

It's 10:20...wait, don't tell me -
Did you just wake up!?

But I never slept...

"Yeah...you guys eat, I'm not really hungry ya-"

There was a sharp sound of two utensils clanking against each other.

And then Rohit Bhai's voice boomed in his ear.

"You NEED to EAT something! I'M GIVING YOU FIVE MINUTES SO HURRY UP AND COME DOWN."

He doesn't understand why his heart has started racing all of a sudden.

"I...uh... Rohit bhai I'll eat later when- "

"Gill. I'm not asking. I'm telling you to come. In five Minutes."

".......okay."

The call ended.

His eyes burned.

He pulled off the blanket and sat up.

There was a window on his left side.

He suddenly felt a sharp tug on his heart.

Shubhman had never wanted to run away this badly before.

It would be so easy to just sneak out and run away.

It was dark outside.

No one would know.

But where would he go?

He stopped the chain of dumb thoughts before they took a turn for the worse and got up.

He had already pushed Rohit Bhai to the point where he had to play the captain card even off field.

He didn't want to stress out the man even more.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

"Three more please.
No wait, Actually... Four more Please."

Jadeja felt as confused as the waiter standing next to him as he listened to Rahul order four more servings of Gulab Jamuns.

The senior players had bullied the depressed looking kids into having their dinner.

No matter how bitter the taste of defeat was, the gnawing pain of hunger overwhelmed it all.
Jadeja knew that from experience.

As expected, They didn't stop once they took the first bite.

That was thirty minutes ago. Almost everyone was done with dinner now and were either dozing off on the table or finishing up with desert.

"Dude Who is going to eat all this?
Almost everyone is full."

"Jaddu bhai I can definitely eat one more."

Yash perked up.

"What about the other three? I don't think anyone's stomach has the space- "

"It's for shubhi."

Rahul wispered.

Oh.

Oh.

"Wait... What? But Bhaii..... You didn't order any food for him...
Should I order something?"

Yashasvi was already halfway out of his seat to go and call the waiter when Rohit Bhai grabbed his arm and pulled him back down.

"Yash...don't. It will go to waste anyway. Finish your Gulab Jamun."

The kid looked like he wanted to argue but shut up after hearing Rohit Bhai's tone.

...Aand opened his mouth again after having a bite of his sweet dish.

"I think it's been more than 5 minutes, Shubhi Bhai is still not here..."

"I'll go get him."

Siraj got up, caught Rohit's eye, gulped and sat down again.

"I'll... Uh... I'll call him?"

Rohit Bhai gave a quick nod and kept typing on his phone.

Jadeja wondered if he was aware of the fierce scowl he was wearing while using his phone.

He had a sudden urge to click a photo of it.

He didn't, because despite what his reputation suggested, he was not, in fact fearless.

"He's not picking up."

Miya looked genuinely worried and Yash looked like he was ready to bolt and grab Shubh himself, if not for Rohit and his glare.

Yash sighed.

"He did say he was sleeping...maybe he's in the bathroom or something?"

Rohit stayed quiet.

Yash tried again.

"Rohit Bhai, I'm done with dinner...so I can just go and- Oh. "

He looked at Jadeja with wide eyes.

Jadeja twisted around in his seat to look behind him.

The sight broke his heart.

Dressed in plain trousers and a hoodie that was definitely way too hot for this weather, with red rimmed and swollen eyes, wearing a defeated expression with his shoulders hunched low, stood their missing teammate.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

So... We WON 🥳

And I wanted to celebrate that by writing a fanfic on our dear youngsters and our equally amazing captain.

Please tell me what you think... Your comments give me The will to write.

ฅ'ω'ฅ