A love lost, A life gained

Chink in the Armor

Everyone has talked about it but I need to talk about it too because MSD wouldn't be MSD if he hadn't done something so cold, yes I am talking about his poker face after winning the CB series. The most audacious moves by a captain who had just taken over the reigns, still a junior to more than half his own team let alone the World Cup veterans, and not just a subtle cheeky move, a straight up in your face move. Yeah we beat you, get used to it. He is the best heir Sourav Ganguly could have had, having bold gameplays that sometimes could come off as arrogant but it was really a mind game, the sheer fight he would put up even if they had next to no chances, and ofcourse, giving the mighty Australians the finger. Neither cared that this was perhaps the strongest team of the era, that they regularly were giant bullies too, everyone knows an australian can sledge their way to a win. A lot of audacity in these two. This is why I like to say that Sourav didn't build a team of cricketers, he rounded up a gang of brats.

I love how he leads with Sourav's fieriness but his attitude is steely like Rahul. Perfect golden boy huh? Yeah and I can't keep my Jammy fangirling down for long, did y'all watch the cred curious interview (Though I gotta warn you, the interviewer was frankly boring)? His reaction to not knowing a difficult word and also most definitely mimicking Rohit was hilarious. He called the Gunda ad, the most embarrassing thing he has ever done, and yeah we know Rahul, how embarrassed you were. If he was an ostrich, his head would be buried 50 feet below ground, sorry I just find it funny. 

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Mahi had successfully pleaded his way into being allowed to come to the practice. His fever was nearly all gone, only the sinus had not cleared, and he was basically vibrating out of his skin being stuck in the same room. They had had to take his laptop away so he wouldn't burn his eyes out drowning in his games. Rahul was learning a new detail about the kid, namely that he needed something to do at all times, he was very very restless otherwise. Rahul had tried arguing against letting him come to the practice but Sourav had folded so hard against Mahi's desperate voice that it was useless to try.  Not that he had any right to call Sourav out on it, he himself had given up on lecturing him for the entire not-telling-them-the-truth thing because Mahi had whined about how much they were scolding him. Sachin was trying to rename him from The Wall to The Doormat.

So yes, despite their collective better judgement, Mahi was allowed to come with them on the strict orders to not even move a finger unless approved or be murdered. It was obvious he wasn't happy with the restrictions but he agreed to comply nonetheless. He was self aware enough to realize that neither was this a battle he could win nor should he be risking his health. Rahul had sighed with relief, maybe they had hope yet with this one.

That was before he spotted Mahi going through a wicket keeping drill. Furiously he abandoned his net practice, ready to murder the kid. Sourav beat him to it.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" he thundered.

Mahi sighed, "The coach told me to, it's not my fault,"

"Greg?" Rahul asked confused, they had made it pretty clear Mahi needed to sit this one out, why would he be told to do otherwise by anyone?

"As far as I know, yes that is his name," Rahul resisted the urge to smack him for the sass, "He said that maintaining my wicketkeeping is the least I could do right now otherwise I would be a liability," Mahi shrugged.

He could see Sourav working hard to control himself. The new coach had been a bit of a pain in the neck for all of them. They had hoped that with time things would settle down and he would adjust to the way India did things. Rahul wanted to be wrong but it didn't look like Greg was interested in adjusting to them. He wanted them to adjust to him. Which was taxing, especially for the youngsters who needed to learn their own game first before going after the finer aspects. This wasn't Australia, a manufactured unit of players. In India, your natural talent, your intent and how it fit in with the rest of them made ICT what it is. ICT didn't need machines, it needed humans. The solid unit that was their team had a wench stuck in between in the form of their coach. It was also taxing for Sourav. His form was still on and off, that in itself was stressful but Chappell's 'tips' were not helping, nor was his brazen approach. Sourav was trying to be patient but being a man with that strong a personality, he was having trouble not outright starting a fight with Chappell. Chappell was interfering in things Sourav felt he had no right to and Rahul agreed but they also couldn't just start a slugfest with their own coach. Things could get ugly. They needed to be a little diplomatic but that word did not exist in Sourav's dictionary. So before his friend could lose his very thread like patience, Rahul intervened.