first greets and last meets

match 0, day 1

August 2019

It was a fairly windy day in August when the news of Shubman being selected as the captain of the India Blue team for the upcoming Duleep Trophy 2019-20 came out.

It had been one of those days when the weather forecasts were repeatedly assuring you that there will be rain (--see those monsoon clouds over there, that's it, that's rain!--) soon, but because it has been so long, you can't help but think that this soon isn't coming soon enough. And when nature decides to send winds in compensation for the unbearable humidity, even though you know it will reduce the chances of your most-awaited rain, you can't help but appreciate the small mercies of life.

Shubman's thoughts on the captaincy were somewhat in a similar direction.

He had wanted to play in the upcoming India tour of WI with the final squad and this was scheduled to begin in early August. Everybody had been talking about it, and everybody had been fairly certain that Shubman would make it. This was Shubman's rain, something he had wanted ever since making his ICT squad debut in January this year and the chances of the same had been good, just like the monsoon clouds in the sky. Only, nature didn't want rain to come for Shubman.

When he had been in the Caribbean, playing an okay-ish series with the India-A squad against WI-A team, the final Indian Cricket Team squad was announced, and Shubman hadn't been included. This had been in July, and Shubman didn't, or rather couldn't, think much of it anyway because he had a series to finish. And the day this series got over, his captaincy in the upcoming domestic tournament was announced; cementing the fact that he wouldn't be able to play with the ICT squad again (at least for now). This was Shubman's wind, something he knew was nothing more than a compensation for the lack of rain, but the title made Shubman feel good too.

Small mercies of life indeed, he mused, as he walked down the ridiculously long hallway towards the meeting room in the hotel they were staying at for this tournament. It was a captains and coaches only meet, and Shubman was already late. It wasn't actually his fault though, for his flight had been delayed (by only twenty minutes, but still). He had expected the delay-- because of the irregular weather back in Punjab-- and had texted his coach the same but what he hadn't expected or rather, what he had forgotten about, was that he was going to Bengaluru. And the traffic here was just terrific, note the sarcasm.

He sighed through his nose, pushed back the hair on his forehead, and tried to walk faster. Two minutes later, he was barging into a room (not without knocking, he wasn't a juvenile) filled with what looked like two other players and their respective coaches, sitting around a round table. He dutifully made his way to the empty chair next to his team's coach and apologized profusely for the delay. The people in the room just waved him off and began the meeting.

While this was Shubman's first time in a captains' meet, he was no stranger to the things to be discussed during the two hours they were meant to be here. The details of the tournament, their respective team staffs, members and coaches, the schedule to be followed, the venues they would be playing at and other stuff like that. (He'd contacted a barely awake Ajinkya before his flight to get a debrief on this stuff and his (ex) cap hadn't disappointed.)

When the introductions began, Shubman insisted that his coach should go first, for that meant Shubman would either go second or last.

Naturally, he wanted to go last.

Given the very obvious fact that he was the youngest guy in the room, he knew better than to stand out just yet. He felt a stare on him and looked up just in time to see a guy, much older than him, staring and smirking as if he knew exactly what was going on in Shubman's mind. It made him feel unsettled for a second there.