ICT ONE-SHOTS (FRIENDSHIP)

Captain (Mahirat)

Virat, after great indecision, had dropped Jinks and selected Rohit for the first two Tests vs SA, 2018.

Social media was going insane over the stupidity of the act, and former players were all speaking up for Jinks--they were cooking up stories about how Virat was biased against Jinks, when in reality, Jinks was one his very best friends, thought Virat angrily.

Rohit top scored with 47 in the last inning of the 2nd Test, but India lost both, and Virat knew he had to bring in Jinks then.

While announcing the team, Virat fleetingly wished with intensity that Mahi bhai was there with him. But since abruptly retiring from Tests 3 years ago, everything had fallen upon Virat, and that wasn't going to change anytime soon.

It was awful to choose between Rohit and Jinks; awful to tell Rohit without daring to meet his eyes, "You'll not be playing tomorrow"; awful to feel guilty about dropping either Rohit or Jinks; and awfullest to keep having to remind himself, he's a captain, a professional, and not Rohit/Jinks' friend.

India won the 3rd Test and Jinks top scored with 48 in the third inning and that gave the social media even more substance to condemn Virat's captaincy.

Then the ODIs began, and Jinks scored 78 in the 1st ODI, putting on a stand of 189 with Virat himself, and a hurricane broke out on the internet.

"Kohli conspiring against Ajinkya Rahane?"

"Virat Kohli getting Test captaincy--was it the right decision?"

"Best player need not be the best captain--STAND DOWN VIRAT KOHLI"

Why was he even bothering to read these nonsense, Virat wondered despairingly. But once he started letting the media bother him, he couldn't stop.

By the time the last ODI arrived, Virat felt like he was going completely insane.

Rohit asked him on the eve of the 6th ODI, "Are you ok, Virat? Why d'you look so miserable?"

"I dunno," said Virat flatly. "I'm not feeling miserable."

But he was.

Rohit wanted to say more, but this was one of those few things he couldn't tell even Rohit, because Rohit had never been international captain...he wouldn't understand.

Few minutes later, Virat was to be found in his room, obsessively studying the media reports again. Suddenly the door opened and closed and Virat looked up quickly to see Mahi bhai staring at his laptop critically.

Virat desperately tried to shut his laptop, praying that Mahi bhai hadn't seen anything.

But obviously, he had.

"What do you think you're doing, Cheeku? Who goes through what the media is saying?" said Mahi sternly.

"I was just glancing at what they're saying exactly," Virat tried to cover. "Like they're saying that Jinks should have played in all the Tests...but I couldn't have dropped Rohit after that Sri Lanka series, could I?"

Mahi bhai, unexpectedly for Virat, said nothing.

Virat tried to explain his point, getting passionate. "Jinks failed in the entire series and Ro played so well--I had to take Rohit, didn't I, Mahi bhai? Say something!"

"Cheeku, South Africa is different from a home Sri Lanka series. Jinks is much better suited to South African conditions than Rohit, you..." Mahi bhai said, but Virat stood up abruptly, his face flushed with anger.

"Why did you run away from captaincy at all?" said Virat rudely.

"Cheeku, I was just--" began Mahi bhai.