A Victory which Matters (Dedicated to 27 and 45)

Part 16

"Virat--now," said Ashwin, breaking Kohli from a happy trance.

"Why? It's going so nice now!" he protested.

"Er... Virat...we'd better bring them back before Rohit wakes up," said Dhawan with a perfectly straight face.

They all looked at each other.

"Point," said Virat, and he overturned the box and put his hand though the opening. Closing his eyes, he thought about Rohit and Jinks, which wasn't hard, seeing that he had been thinking mostly about them for days.

After some time, they appeared on the grass, both of them still sleeping.

"Let's take Rohit first," said Ashwin, very sensibly, because no one particularly wanted to face Rohit's reaction when he got to know how they had gone behind his back.

"What happened to them?" asked Pujara, suddenly appearing with Ravi Shastri.

"Fell asleep," said Jadeja without hesitation.

"Both of them?" said Shastri disbelievingly.

"Strange, isn't it?" said Jadeja. "Hey, Shikhar, give a hand--we'll take Rohit back to his room."

"Why, can't you wake him up?" asked Puji.

"No!"

Pujara and Shastri wondered why all of them looked so guilty.

Accordingly, Rohit and Jinks were taken back to their rooms and deposited on their beds.

As the rest went to dinner, Kohli told Shastri, "By the way, sir, I think we'll play Rohit tomorrow."

The coach stared at him. "You were undecided two hours ago. You said you'll take the decision tomorrow morning."

Kohli frowned slightly, feeling confused.

"But now I think we should give Rohit another chance..." he said uncertainly, wondering why he felt so certain.

"Imagine--the devil made up his mind," whispered Jadeja to Ashwin.

"Kind of creepy, isn't it?" said Ashwin. "But overall, the thing turned out well."