If Driksha was the happiest person in the world after 2018's IPL Auction, Day 1, there was one person who ought to have been deliriously happy, but was not. Shubman Gill had been bought for 1.8 crore (goodness, he kept thinking) the very first day he appeared for the auction and yet, it was KKR.

Tamil Nadu, 2nd April, 2011

"Driksha," called her mother. "Keep away that notebook and pen for a day, beta. You'll spoil your eyesight completely one day."

"Don't," said Driksha absent-mindedly scratching her head with the pen, every inch a budding writer. "Don't spoil the mood, mumma."

"It's not normal for an eleven-year-old child to spend all her free time writing," her mother said in despair. "On the finals of a World Cup, too. Come and watch the match with us-your brother's a professional cricketer, you should at least know the basic rules of cricket..."

"Let her write if she wants, Aunt," DK said, who'd just come in with his wife and parents-the Karthik family intended to watch the World Cup final together. "What's the name of this story, Driksh?" he asked, sitting down beside her.

"Old Burnbury Farm," said the writer, looking up finally. "Have you heard of Burnbury, bhaiya?"

"No?"

"It's a city in Australia. We read about it in geography. I liked the name."

DK smiled. "What happens in old Burnbury farm?"

"A pair of twins separated at birth-" Driksha started to say.

"Good lord, he's called it wrong, I had a feeling he would!" DK's father (and Driksha's Uncle) exclaimed at the TV.

"MS lost the toss?" DK asked anxiously, going up to have a look. 

"Batting second in a final is pretty bad..." his Aunt fretted.

Nikita bhabi had her head in her hands. DK patted her shoulder.

"The team chases good," he said wo consolingly, but MSD, on TV, said, "We would have batted first as well..."

"There you go," his father sighed, "we're doomed. We're gone."

He exchanged a truly doomed look with Nikita.

Driksha put away her notebook and tugged at DK's arm. "Why are we doomed? Why do we need to bat first?"

"Because batting second creates a bit of pressure. You don't need that extra pressure in a World Cup final," explained DK.

"Why does batting second create pressure?"

Driksha's mother, thrilled to find her daughter taking an interest in cricket for the first time ever, gave her nephew a pat on the head to tell him to continue explaining her.

That day DK could not watch the match as intently as he would have liked due to his little sister's continual enquiries.

"Why was that two runs?" "Why is the wicket keeper standing so close?"

But he didn't mind, and answered all her questions patiently.

"OH!" screamed Driksha as Gambhir put in that dive that would be remembered by India all of eternity. "Is he hurt? His shirt-"

"No, it's just mud," said her father. "The ground is soft, he's not hurt."

"Why did he jump like that?"

"He dived," said DK, "otherwise he'd have been run out."

"What's run out?"

DK, whose hands had started to go cold at the precarious position of the match, was glad of having something to talk about.

Two hours later, when MSD hit the winning six, sending a country of 1 billion into waves of delirium, and the whole Karthik family was gushing on and on about their captain, Driksha asked her brother, "But if Gambhir had not dived, we would not have won, right?"

"No, Driksh, we certainly wouldn't have."

Driksha looked at the TV, that was showing MSD and Yuvraj Singh's celebrations, trying to spot a muddy tshirt in the crowd.

She did, finally, and from that moment, Gautam Gambhir was her hero.

.............................

"GAMBHIR NAMED KKR'S CAPTAIN FOR THE '11 SEASON."

The headline of the newspaper one day a week later caught her eyes as her father was reading it during breakfast.

"What's KKR, dad?"

"An IPL team."

"What's IPL?"

"It's a T20 league within the country..."

"What's T20?"

Her father sighed and put down the newspaper. "Look. I'll put bhaiya on call. You can start taking cricket lessons from him."

Driksha's eyes brightened. "I want to talk to bhaiya!"

The first thing she told DK, without knowing properly of KKR, IPL and T20 cricket was, "Bhaiya, I support KKR in the IPL!"

"I'll play for KXIP this year, but you can support KKR if you like," said DK, amused.

"I'll support you when you play," said Driksha, alarmed. "Otherwise, KKR."

At that moment, there was a boy in Mohali, studying the same newspaper, not knowing how this captaincy announcement was going to break his heart someday.

Mohali, 1st June, 2014

When KXIP scored 199 in the IPL final of 2014 and Robin Uthappa, the Orange Cap holder, got out in the first over, Shubman and his horde of friends from school had already started celebrating. They had two sacksful of crackers, ready to set them off when their team, their beloved hometown team KXIP, playing its first final, won.

But KKR never really gave way in the chase, keeping up a steady run rate of 9 or 10, led by Manish Pandey, aided by Gautam Gambhir, Yusuf Pathan and Shakin al Hasan by turn.

With Pandey, Ryan ten Doeschate and Suryakumar Yadav's quick dismissals towards the end recreated a chance for KXIP, but Piyush Chawla hit a 6 odd Johnson on the last ball of the 19th over.

Then the winning 4 in the last over.

Shubman, all of fourteen and an aspiring cricketer himself, had still not recovered fully from India having dominated the league stage but having lost the T20 World Cup finals earlier that year.

On top of that, KXIP dominated over everyone for the whole duration of the tournament and lost in the final, too.

It was too much, simply too much. 

Sri Lanka, KKR, how he hated them both.

Dark blue and purple jerseys. Defeating his unbeatable teams in the final.

At that moment, crying to himself on the terrace so that no one could see he was crying, Shubman was quite certain he'd hate the Kolkata Knight Riders till the end of his life.