16th August 2021

The team was naturally in high spirits as they had just won a test match in Lord's from a stage where nobody expected a win.

The dressing room bubbled with joy, hugs flying everywhere and happiness radiating. It was pure bliss.

After hours of celebration, Virat had literally forced the team to go back to their rooms and rest.

Unwillingly, the team retired to their rooms and took to their respective Instagram handles and posted pictures from the memorable day when a mischievous plan had struck the skipper.

Virat was always the first to back his team and stand up for them whenever he was needed. The trolls had been after Jinks for a while now and Virat saw how they affected his best friend.

He badly wanted to give them a piece of his mind but Jinks effectively shut him up when he suggested talking back.

"But now is different, Jinks  performed well and his partnership with Pujji had practically saved the match for us," thought Virat.

He immediately ran out of the room towards the room of his partner in crime and best friend- Rohit Sharma.

Virat impatiently knocked on the door only to be opened by a stressed Ritika.

"What happened Vi? Why'd you knock so many times?"

"I have a brilliant plan Ritsy, Ro needs to hear this out!" Virat babbled excitedly.

Ritika gestured him to come in and chuckled at her husband's over excited best friend who happened to be a brother figure in her life.

"Ro is playing with Sammy inside, I'll go call him," Ritika said amused at how at home Virat looked on their sofa.

"No need," said Rohit as he chased his two year old daughter who ran towards her favourite chachu.

"Hi sweetie! How are you little one?" Virat said animatedly, trying to make conversation with his niece while she  lifted her arms up indicating she wanted to be picked up.

Rohit plopped down beside Virat and Ritika tried to take her Sammy so that the two friends could talk in peace but the little one wrapped her arms around Virat tighter unwilling to let go.

"Right, I'll go sit with Nush she might need help too. Bring Sammy there if she gets cranky," said Ritika as she left her room.

"So what did you want to tell me so urgently?" Rohit questioned impatiently.

"Well you know how the trolls have been after Jinks for so long..." Virat started off.

"Mhmm I remember that, mainly because you wouldn't go a day without saying. Carry on," Rohit said half annoyed. It was natural that he was worried about his best friend too.

"Yeah and now Jinks performed so well, so I thought we should post something giving it back to those incompetent fools," Virat stated excitedly making Rohit's face brighten up and then immediately fall.

"As much as I want to do that, I for sure know that Jinks will kill us. We can't be posting more controversial posts from our accounts now that we've sorted out our rift drama. Oh and Mahi Bhai will literally kill us if we cook up more controversies." Rohit said sensibly which made Virat's face fall.

The two left the topic there while they bickered about anything that came to mind. Eventually, Sam got bored too and joined Aarya on the trip to Virat's room where apparently all the kids where camping out.

As they were about to make their way to Virat's room, Virat was struck with another 'brilliant' idea.

"RO! RO! RO! LISTEN!" Virat yelled excitedly.

"What happened now?" Rohit questioned back in a similar tone.

"What if we post a reply to those fools from Jinks' account?" Virat said enthusiastically.

Rohit thought about it for a second and replied "I can't believe I'm agreeing to your ridiculous plan because that sounds perfect!" making Virat gloat.

"But how are we getting Jinks' phone? It's not like he's going to just give us his phone," Rohit stated logically.

"I've thought it through Ro, we get Radhika to help us. She's one of us after all." Virat said smirking and Rohit joined along.

                               ****
"Radhs listen all you have to do is say your phone is out of charge and you need Jinks' phone to show the ladies something. And then you come give us the phone!" Virat laid out his 'masterplan' and Radhika nodded.

Within 10 minutes, Radhika came back with Jinks' phone and left.

"Right now we have Jinks' phone, what do we do now?" Virat asked.

"I don't know, this was your plan!" exclaimed Rohit impatiently. "Well we could just simply post a funky picture of his and caption it something smart I suppose,"

"That's perfect! Ooh and I know exactly what picture to post!" Virat half screamed excitedly while Rohit raised his eyebrows as to ask what.

"You know the picture we forced him to take in that ridiculous jacket of Harry's as part of a dare, we could post that one!" Virat continued in the same tone.

They quickly posted the picture with a witty caption that nobody would've expected Jinks to post and sneakily put the phone back in his room and waited for the drama to begin...

                             *****
"VIIIII!!" Jinks yelled as he burst into Virat's room causing Virat and Rohit to jump.

"Hi Jinksy," said Virat meekly, taken back by the sudden rage that Jinks was going through.

"What did I say about not saying anything back!" Jinks yelled exasperatedly and as he started throwing pillows at Virat.

Virat dodged the first one and started running around the room followed by Jinks with two more pillows in his hands.

"Aah Jinks stop! You performed well so it only made sense!" Virat said hastily defending himself, dodging another pillow. "Rohit help me out here!"

"Nope I'm getting free entertainment!" Rohit grinned cheekily as he went back to eating some "oily snack" as Virat puts it.

"There was absolutely no need of you posting that!" Jinks yelled back.

Virat turned around to say something back but ended up tripping on one of Vamika's toys and landed flat on his face.

Rohit let out a huge guffaw and Jinks dropped everything in his hands and went to help Virat up.

"You ok?" Jinks questioned with utmost concern.

"Yeah I'm fine," Virat said running his nose.

"Rohit stop laughing," Jinks said seriously as he saw Rohit struggling to keep a straight face.

"I'm sorry, I can't help it if he looks like such a fool!" Rohit laughed out making Virat and Jinks glare at him.

The three of them sat on the bed as Jinks threw Rohit and Virat an accusing glare.

"I'm still not ok with it! I thought I made it clear, no talking back. God now I know how Rahul Bhai felt when that ad came out!" Jinks ranted in frustration. "Great, now the post is going viral,"

"Jinksy, look it's not that bad. You performed well, shut the trolls up and now it's no fun without some talking back," Virat attempted to defend himself.

Just then, Rohit's phone rang. Their 'legal guardian' had called at an odd timing and that could only mean one thing...

"Virat what made you think it was a good idea to post that!" Mahi Bhai yelled at Virat as soon as Rohit picked up.

"Why mee!!!" Virat whined and Mahi Bhai glared back at him.

"Shut up immediately. I know you posted that-" MS started before Rohit cut him off saying.

"Bhai you opened Instagram?"

"How I found out, that's not the point right now. The point is, we don't need more controversies," Mahi Bhai stated logically as always.

"But Bhai, I couldn't see my best friend being attacked like that. I had to say something back, and I don't care what controversies I bring," Virat said impatiently.

"I know, but there are different ways of doing that," MS said.

"Thank you Bhai, I was trying to say that for the past half hour and this dimwit isn't understanding anything." Jinks ranted again.

"Hey why am I getting blamed for all this, what happened to Rohit?" Virat said hastily trying to divert the topic.

"Because they both know that you came up with this plan," Rohit argued back and Virat sulked as the rest of them laughed. Virat gave Rohit the stink eye.

Not wanting to deal with a RohiRat fight right now, Jinks hastily said "Ok ok,  post is fine but why that picture! I look hideous in that!"

"Jinksy, what's the fun in a normal post!" Virat said cheekily as the whole pillow fight started all over again.

Rohit aimed popcorn at Virat and Jinks chased Virat around the room throwing whatever he found (not harmful because this is Jinks).

Mahi Bhai looked at the trio through the phone and smiled a big genuine smile.

He was happy that they would stand up for each other whenever the other needed.

Because he knew that if  'anyone goes after one of our guys, all eleven - and more - would come right back.

                              ******
Ok firstly, this plot started off as a random conversation between sangamitra_, theclumsysoul  and me so I owe a lot of the chapter to them.  And I wrote this up as a complete whim.

Secondly, I don't know how this turned out. Didn't plan it all, just went with the flow so genuine opinions please.

Updates after this, I have no clue. I write on impulse really.

Do vote and comment <3