first greets and last meets

match 0, day 2 (part II)

"Hey, guys, look who the wind brought in! It's our missing captain."

Shubman had been expecting this, so he said nothing in his defense as he took all the jeers and teasing of his teammates when he finally made it back to their table.

"Hello, everyone," He smiled a bit before bowing slightly in front of everybody, "Shubman Gill, captain and batsman, India Blue team. Hope we all play a good tournament together."

Everyone was coming to introduce themselves to him then. Shubman knew from the briefing meeting yesterday and his own research that some of his team members were older, more experienced players (than him anyway) who gave up on their dreams of making it big in the ICT after a good few series and were permanently into domestic cricket now. He had an aim regarding this part of his team; he wanted to get on their good side to learn as much as he can from them for his future and growth. This was easy, for him anyway.

But as the members got younger and younger in age, his research flashed through his mind again, and he remembered the bit about the players who were playing in the domestic season for the first time or who were making their list-A debut with this tournament and team. As Shubman glanced over to see their fresh, new but equally nervous energy, his mind took him back to last year when, he was sure, he was being a lot more fidgety than them.

This part, he thought, was kind of hard for him because, in general, a captain is supposed to lead. These new and budding players are the next generation of cricket, just like Shubman and he realized that this was the responsibility he had felt so unsettled over for the last few days. He knew from experience how a bad team or bad firsts in the league can shape one's future self and performance, so it was entirely upon him to make this team or, at least the tournament as a whole, a good one for them to learn from. Better than what he experienced his first time around anyway.

The breakfast was almost over now, they were meant to go training according to their schedules.

Shubman glanced longingly at the ceiling to floor length windows in the dining hall, covered with mist and droplets of freshly fallen rain because sometime during him leaving and coming back to the dining hall, it had started raining miraculously (not really because he had seen the clouds last night, had predicted the same but still, this was sudden), so all they could do now for their routine practices was work out in the gym, at least until the rain relented a bit. 

This decision was made during the impromptu meet the captains had to attend the moment Shubman had managed to free himself from a surprisingly clingy Anmolpreet and now he was here, to relay the information to his team.

"Alright, you guys had your fun." He tried to control the rowdiness of his members, "Now, I have an announcement to make, so if you could..." but he could see, very clearly, that they weren't interested in him, not for now at least.

Shubman, from a year ago, would probably have given up right then and there, if he was being honest.

There's something so unexplainably tiring and stupid about having but also, more specifically, wanting to control the chaos of a team with all players older than you, that it didn't make sense why would you even want to try? Like it's pretty and agonizingly clear that no one was going to listen to him anyways because apart from being their captain, the initial shock of which was conveniently dismissed now, and a promising player for the entirety of his nine matches since debut, it wasn't like he had a good name in handling the social aspects that come with being in a team. That was, and anyone with a working brain can attest to that, Ishan's department, someone Shubman would rather not think about right now, again, if he was being honest. 

He was already feeling shit about this... this-- Was Ricky actually throwing a bread on... Ashutosh? -- whatever this was, that he didn't need more guilt piling up on that.