12th December, 2023

Jassi had been off anything and everything related to cricket for the past three weeks.

23 days, 1 hour, 4 minutes. 

(Kidding; he wasn't actually counting minutes.)

(Or maybe he was.)

It was past dinnertime. Sanjana was out with friends. Angad was in his crib, sound asleep. Jassi didn't have the energy to get up from the couch in whose depths he was nestled, trying to watch a web series, and failing, trying to sing along to a couple of songs, and failing, and trying to will the casserole from the fridge into the oven zooming into his hands, and also (obviously) failing.

He'd been getting into this zone often lately, being unable to move a limb, and preferring to lie on his back and stare at the ceiling instead. After the finals, Sanjana had insisted on going for the trip, which his mother had approved of wholeheartedly, but Jassi didn't think it had done much good. Maybe he had been a bit more active there, but he'd still preferred to sit on the sand and gaze into the wave-traced skyline of the ocean rather than actually doing something.

He was not new to this zone, but he could swear it was getting worse with every passing year.

When around half past ten he was deliberating for the thirtieth time whether he should move himself and get something to eat (because it was not like he didn't get hungry anymore), SKY chose to gave him the best news of the year.

It was the screenshot of a news article that popped up from his chat.

'IPL 2024 trade: Hardik Pandya returns to Mumbai Indians in all-cash deal.'

'Spoof?' Jassi typed.

'Of course not, dummy, everyone knows' SKY typed back.

Jassi called SKY, his hand feeling a bit shaky.

"I suspected you were living in oblivion when you didn't say anything," SKY said. "You were supposed to jump through the roof."

"I won't jump through the roof till I'm sure this is real," said Jassi. "How is it real? Why would GT--"

"Look, it's been in talks for ages, Rohit bhai hinted at it ages ago."

"I never heard him hinting at something like that!"

"Maybe he didn't want to get your hopes up. And now that you both have been missing in action for weeks, you didn't stand a chance of being tipped off. But you can jump through the roof now, it's real, I've spoken to Hardik about a million times since the deal was finalized."

"When was it finalized?" asked Jassi.

"Afternoon."

Jassi couldn't deny he felt a bit put out that Hardik hadn't already called him. But he was a thousand times happier than he was put out--so happy that he did feel like jumping through the roof--and he told a sniggering SKY a hasty goodbye and called Hardik.

"Hi, Jas--"

"You couldn't have told me?" cut in Jassi. "How long have you known?"

"Been a while now," admitted Hardik.

"What the hell is wrong with you? It's been all over the news all evening, the whole world knew and I didn't--and it didn't strike you at all that I should be the first one who should know? Well, second, after Rohit bhaiya. I assume he knows?"

"Of course."

"Asking again--what the hell is wrong with you?"

"I thought--you said you--you didn't want to think of cricket for a while--"

"Hardik, this is exactly the sort of news I needed to get myself back into thinking about cricket!" Jassi was so in earnest, his voice had risen to a shout.

"Really?" asked Hardik.

"What an unbearable idiot," muttered Jassi.

"What an oblivious idiot," said Hardik promptly.

"We can play Anagram Magic during IPL, too," said Jassi, beaming. "We can be together all year again. You moron--I'm so--this is so--I don't know why I love you so much."

"You angel," said Hardik. "I do know why I love you so much."

________________

15th December, 2023

Jassi's life had picked up quite a lot in the past three days.

He didn't feel quite a lazy anymore, and went out for brief walks with his wife and son if nothing else. That day, they'd gone to a park and Angad had caught a fancy to rolling in the mud, much to Sanjana's horror, but Jassi stopped her from picking him up.

There was something liberating about being able to roll in the mud without worrying about getting your clothes dirty, and something gratifying to see someone finding joy in something as simple as that.

So Jassi joined his son, squatting on the ground.

It was the most buoyant he'd felt in 25 days, 21 hours (he'd lost count of the minutes--a good sign) and when they returned and Jassi had finished washing his and Angad's muddy hands and was about to go and change their muddy clothes, it was SKY again who chose to give him the worst news of the year.

Jassi worried he'd got too much mud in his eyes; he splashed icy water into it and read through the post again, blinking.

It still said the same.

Now he decided to sit down. He needed to sit down and read through his team's post again and again till it said something else, or till it disappeared, because this was simply impossible and his eyes had to be playing tricks on him.

An hour later, it still said the same.

'Spoof?' Jassi finally wrote to SKY.

SKY's reply was short.

'Nah.'

Jassi couldn't say anything more. Neither did SKY. So he went in pursuit of the news sites.

It was all over the news.

Of course it was.

This was a five-times victorious captain who was being replaced. It was the national captain who was being replaced.

'Hardik Pandya to succeed Rohit Sharma as MI captain from IPL 2024.'

They all said the same thing, phrased differently.

'Will the captaincy change benefit Mumbai Indians in the long run?'

'Hardik Pandya takes over the reins of five-times champions after Rohit Sharma's 11-year stint.'

'Hardik Pandya had captaincy condition to return to Mumbai Indians.'

That was when the trade made a lot more sense. Both from MI's perspective, and Hardik's.

Hardik, who'd apparently forgone captaincy in his new but successful team and apparently returned to his old team out of loyalty. The real world didn't work like that, but Jassi had believed it did. Jassi had believed Hardik had wanted to return to their team because it was their team, and it had never occurred him to even ask once why he'd sacrificed his captaincy just like that.

Now he knew why he hadn't been given the news firsthand from the man in question.

Or either of the men in question? Because it wasn't just about Hardik.

It was about their captain, too. Their forever captain.

Rohit bhaiya must have known from the start of the trade talks SKY had mentioned; the talks that had started even before the World Cup. But he'd never let it show. That's what Rohit bhaiya did, and had always done, for eight years--eight years--protected them--him and Hardik--from everything.

But even eight years of protection, it seemed, could be forgotten and discarded and betrayed by some people when it came to their personal glories.

_________________

A/N: It was on this Kolkata-Kharagpur train line I made this account and typed my first cricket fanfiction when I was in my 1st year, nearly 5 years ago. Now I'm returning with my degree, but still writing on ICT. 

I'm sure I'm not on the last local train on this line, because even if I earn lakhs in the future, I'll choose local train over express trains and cab to revisit my campus because that's such an integral part of my journey with my college; campus-home-campus every weekend. But past convocation, it does feel like the end of everything.