"You okay, Mayu?" Rahul asked as he saw Mayank's face.

"Yeah." Mayank replied.

"What's wrong with you?" Rahul asked, frowning at his best friend for behaving in absolutely normal way because Mayank behaving normal with him was the most abnormal thing he could do.

"Nothing's wrong with me." Mayank said hastily.

"Let's go, Mayank Bhaiya." Prithvi called out.

"Good luck!" Rahul said before Mayank left.

Virat came and sat beside Jinks who wasn't in very merry mood.

"What's wrong with you?" Virat asked.

"Nothing!" Jinks said plainly.

"Are you still upset? Jinksy, we have a very strong side and I know you can lead the team the best."Virat said keeping his hand over Jinks' with hopeful eyes.

"Oh no, no!" Jinks cried disappointedly confusing Virat at first.

"What—Oh, no!" Virat said in disappointment too.

Prithvi was bowled out on the very second ball. He walked towards the pavallion with his head hung down. And Pujara walked down the ground after receiving encouraging nods from captain and vice captain.

"Don't worry. Puji and Mayu will handle." Virat mumbled to himself more than to Jinks.

"You should pad up." Jinks said simply.

"Virat Bhaiya?" Jassi came towards them and looked at them, confused about what's going on between these two.

"Yes, Jass?" Virat replied.

"Ash bhaiya and Jaddu bhaiya was calling you." Jassi said.

"Tell them I'm not participating in any of their pranks right now." Virat said with sigh.

Jassi left giving confused looks to both of them.

"Puji is defending so good, Jinksy." Virat said for a change of topic, hoping Jinks would accept the change simply.

"He is." Jinks replied, still looking away.

Virat sighed. He knew nothing he says is going to work now so he just sat there silently.

Mayank and Pujara's partnership was going smooth untill Mayank, too, got bowled out in eighteenth over.

Virat looked towards Jinks hopefully but walked down with crestfallen face on not getting any response from Jinks.

"Dunno why he is so mad at me!" Virat mumbled to himself as he took the strike and Virat was already transferred to the gloomy mode.

Pujara and Virat had a nice, long partnership and made India reach the score of hundred. Then, Pujara was catch out in 49th over and the vice captain came out in the middle to bat.

Virat looked at Jinks and Jinks nodded positively which triggered Virat's spirit instantly.

Both of them, having unparalleled off field bonding, also had brilliant understanding on field between them.

"Nice shot, Jinksy!" Virat praised gleefully as Jinks hit Lyon for a six.

Both of them were trying to rotate the strike as frequently as they could, both being fast runners between the wickets.

As Virat reached his half century, Jinks forgot that he was ever upset and patted Virat's back proudly.

"So proud of you, Vi!" Jinks whispered swiftly before taking back his place.

Virat beamed. If he knew half century would make Jinksy normal, he would have reached here sooner.

"They seem quite okay to me." Mayank shrugged looking at Jinks and Virat from dressing room.

"They do." Rahul agreed. "But Jassi was right. I'd noticed it too that something was going on between these two."

"Well, they better be okay for this test match at least." Mayank said looking towards them. "They are having a nice go."

"Captain and vice captain of our team!" Rahul said promptly.

"Yeah—Oh, no!" Mayank shrieked

"Run, Jinksy!" Virat cried as Jinks hit the ball.

"No, Vi, back— " Jinks cried back, stopping midway.

They had the ball in hands and—

The damage had been done. They took Virat's wicket effortlessly.

Jinks looked more crestfallen than Virat himself. Virat just gave a assuring nod to Jinks before walking out and Vihari came out to bat.

It wasn't long after Virat departed when Jinks lost his wicket too. And this time Virat looked more crestfallen than Jinks himself.

"He should have got his half century!" Virat cried to himself when Jinks got out on 42.

The first day ended with a score of 233-6 for India. Quite smoothly too.
--------------------------------------

"We will end with a decent score." Virat said sitting beside Jinks in his room.

"Only if it wasn't Australia we were playing against." Jinks said shortly.

"We have strong bowling attack to counter them, don't we?" Virat said defensively.

What's wrong with Jinks? Why is he being so hyper about this test? Wasn't it always other way round, Virat getting hyper and Jinks calming him down? Then why it's being opposite this time?

"I believe so." Jinks said drily.

"Jinks, we have Jassi, we have Ash, we have Shami, we have Umesh! We have the best of best!" Virat said confidently.

"When did I ever disagree, Virat?" Jinks asked wearily.

"You aren't agreeing either!" Virat accused.

Jinks looked away without saying anything. Even he didn't know why was he being so doubtful about this match. He just couldn't bring himself to believe in their luck in this match.

Now, how was he supposed to explain this to Virat?

Virat knew something was going on in Jinks'mind. And he even knew that Jinks didn't want to explain it.

"Don't worry, it's going to be alright. Sleep for now. " Virat said keeping his hand on Jinks' arm. "You don't seem okay to me." He added with a sigh.

"Good night." Jinks said weakly.

Virat was walking towards his room when he heard Jaddu laughing maniacally. Virat was instantly alert. Virat pushed the door slightly and surely, Jaddu didn't disappoint him at all.

"What's going on?" Virat asked in no nonsense tone.

"Virat!" Rahul cried, looking disheveled.

"We were giving some bowling tips to him!" Jaddu grinned.

Surely, they were giving bowling tips, only if you call hitting balls on poor human from every direction to make him experience how each bowling action works out, as bowling tip. Rahul had been their second victim after Ash and poor boy, unlike Ash, couldn't turn the prank at all.

"We?" Virat asked sharply.

"Not asleep yet, Virat?" Mayank showed up out of nowhere.

"Why don't you two just let him live in peace for once?" Virat asked, not in mood for pranks.

"As if you let him live in peace either?" Mayank asked with sugar coated sarcasm in his voice.

"Mayu, you were giving bowling tips?" Virat demanded, ignoring his comment.

"You're insulting my talent, Virat." Mayank accused.

Virat sighed. "You can come and sleep in my room, Rahuliya." Virat said ignoring Mayank.

"Thanks." Rahul said. "And don't call me Rahuliya."

"If you two do one more prank, I'll be grounding both of you." Virat said sternly.

"You think you can?" Jaddu said with a smirk.

"Let's go, Rahuliya." Virat said and Rahul walked out giving menacing looks to Mayank.

"Remember what I said, both of you." Virat said. "Only for time being though." He added before closing the door.

"We should go to sleep too." Mayank said grinning.

All of them called it a day. Virat and Jinks, too, one with hope of being proved right and other desperately hoping his feelings to be wrong.
-----------------------------------------

Second day started with India losing all wickets, one after another and ending up with a score of 244.

As Virat said, quite decent score!

As the second session was about to begin, Virat had started feeling the same way Jinks was. And as much Virat didn't want to show it, his pretended confidence was making it more and more clear to Jinks that Virat, too, was being doubtful.

And no matter how upset Jinks himself might be, he could never see Virat upset and not do anything about it.

"We have the best of best, remember?" Jinks said, approaching Virat.

"Huh.. Yeah! So finally, you agree!" Virat said, trying to sound casual. "I told you so."

"Stop this. No need to show this to me." Jinks said calmly. "And don't worry. We have the best. We have you and–"

"–and you, too!" Virat completed and slung an arm around Jinks making him smile, but Jinks hid it well, or so he thought.

"They are idiots." Ash said to Jaddu who was beside him.

These two have been noticing Virat and Jinks since the first day and was on a roller coaster ride to figure out what's wrong.

"They are sappy about each other." Jaddu said laughing his Jaddu-ish laughter.

"Sometimes, they aren't even properly looking at each other and then, they celebrate for each other, get upset again and then comfort each other! What is this supposed to mean?!" Ash said, exasperated.

"This means Virat will do something again before he leaves, you see, I bet that." Jaddu said dramatically. "And then these two never make up or something, just celebrate for each other like nothing happened and get back to normal in few days again."

"For the first time, Jad," Ash said. "I see sense in what you're speaking."

Jaddu grinned.

"Let's go and discuss the strategy before these two get on something again." Ash said as Jaddu put an arm around him carelessly and nodded.

Second day ended for Australia getting all out on a score of 191 and India leading with 53 runs. Jassi took two wickets, Umesh took three and Ash took four not letting their captain' trust down.

"You see my bowling tips always work out!" Jaddu grinned as Ash walked in.

"Yeah, if injuries helped you taking wickets, your bowling tips do work out!" Ash taunted.

Jaddu shrugged.

Virat and Jinks exchanged known looks of 'We-have-the-best' reassuring each other as Mayank and Prithvi walked down the ground to open.

"Prithvi looks fidgety, doesn't he?" Rahul asked to no one in particular.

"He does." Jinks agreed.

"Puji, pad up." Virat said to Pujara as he heard Rahul and Jinks.

"Aren't you going down today also?" Pujara asked.

"No, you are already batting one position down." Virat said.

"Okay– "

"Virat Bhaiya?" Jassi said, gaining everyone's attention.

"Jass?"

"Can I— I go down to bat?" Jassi asked brightly.

"You?" Virat asked to be sure, his eyes glinting mischievously.

"Yes!"

Everyone exchanged glances.

Oh no, no! Jinks hissed. Bhuvi was right. Hardik was apparently rubbing off on Jassi.

"Okay, Jassi will go next." Virat said, quite proudly making Jassi beam.

Soon, Prithvi lost his wicket and India witnessed their nine down batsman coming out to bat at no. 3 with much needed confidence.

"Jassi?" Mayank asked grimly.

"I'm here to bat." Jassi said with dignity.

"Oh– Why is Virat such a emotional fool?" Mayank asked to himself, wondering the same thing as Jinks.

The first ball to Jassi and his defense! It had the whole dressing room in splits and Virat and Jaddu were almost hysteric, sitting in the front.

Jassi had been trying his best to show that he can bat and wasn't intending to give the strike to Mayank who was throwing 'unbelievable' looks to him every now and then.

Lastly, Jassi turned down a single, giving the strike to Mayank who literally wanted to bang his head somewhere right now. And Jassi stood there with supreme confidence.

The dressing room noticed it and were laughing hysterically.

"Can't believe he's Jassi!" Rahul gasped.

"He's so pressed upon that he can bat!" Jinks laughed in amusement.

Everyone was laughing their hearts out seeing Jassi pulling himself up with so much confidence and Mayank throwing glances at him.

Rahul was laughing more at helplessness of Mayank than Jassi's defense.

"He's—just—", Rahul struggled to control his laugh. "—awesome!"

"Don't laugh so much if you don't want another round of bowling tips from Mayu, Rahuliya." Virat said, laughing.

And it was stumps for second day with India losing one wicket on nine runs.

"Jass!" Virat said ruffling his hair affectionately, hiding his smile.

"What in the world were you thinking while sending him out?" Mayank asked drily.

Rahul was about to laugh but shut his mouth seeing Mayank look at him dangerously.

Virat chuckled looking at him.

"Jassi—AHAHAHAHA—" Jaddu's Jaddu-like laughter once again had the whole team howling with laughter, even Rahul and Virat.

And everyone went to their own rooms to rest and prepare themselves for next day. Virat and Jinks exchanged assuring looks before leaving hoping tomorrow will be nice for India too. The third day.

A day, indeed so memorable, India won't ever forget!
______________________________________

A/n

How was it?

Hope it didn't turn out to be stupid idea to write it like this!

Love ❤️