A Victory which Matters (Dedicated to 27 and 45)

Part 1

"They won't talk to each other--they won't even look at each other. At the Cape Town hotel, they wouldn't come down to dinner together, though they were in adjacent rooms--and here, they have taken rooms on different floors..."

Ashwin sat with his arms crossed, listening to Kohli in silence.

"They won't laugh at any joke made my the other--they won't take part in the same group conversation... can't you see all this, Ash?"

"I can, Virat. I'm not blind," said Ashwin.

"Do you need to mind it so much?" asked the only other person within earshot, Bumrah, timidly.

"Well--of course! They were such close friends earlier! You'd think they'll respect the team's decision..."

"They have respected it, Virat. Neither of them said a word of objection," said Ashwin fairly.

"I know it was hard on Jinks, but Rohit might have reacted better--"

"How did their rift start? Jinks is not the kind of person to feel angry or raise his voice. And Rohit got his own way. What's the problem?"

"It's these stupid tweets by the commoners--they're coming in thousands...'Drop Rohit, we want Rahane'...and all the oldies speaking up for Jinks. Rohit has got a bit of a temper, you know, and these things are enough to drive anyone crazy," said Kohli, because he could relate to Rohit perfectly.

"But I don't believe Jinks will say anything at all to gloat--" began Ashwin.

"Neither of them gloated, Ash. It's a cold war... And that's the worst of it," said Kohli miserably.

"Yeah..." And though Ash did feel bad about the coldness between two of their teammates, he knew that Virat was having it worst--apart from the fact that he had approved of the bizarre decision of dropping Rahane, he had also been close friends with both of them.