The mood in Team India's hotel was an all time low after having been bowled out for 36 in the second innings of the Adelaide Test.

Jaddu had tried to cheer them up by a drawling, "We didn't get all out, you know...who knows how much the last wicket partnership would have yielded?"

Pretty much the whole team glared daggers at him, but no one more so than Jinks, who looked positively uncanny.

"Sorry," said Jaddu hastily, and mourned with the team in silence.

**********

"What an atmosphere back there in India," sighed Virat, slipping into Jinks' room late that night, because neither of them could sleep. "I heard some people are trying to commit suicide out of shame."

Jinks looked away, not in a mood for jokes.

"And you going away is only going to make everything worse," said Jinks.

"It's not going to make anything worse, Jinks."

"Yeah?" said Jinks, shortly.

Virat choked back his guilt—because yes, he was feeling guilty, of course he was, how could he not when he was having to leave his team reeling in crisis?—and then steeled his heart.

"Don't be an infernal idiot for god's sake, Jinks, you sound like Gavaskar and Sanju Manju and the like."

Jinks looked up, too surprised to even glare at Virat.

"Like who?"

"Gavaskar?" said Virat slowly, as if Jinks was being thick. "Sanju Manju? That idiot who has it in for Jaddu and Harry and pretty much half our team?"

"I sound like them?" said Jinks dangerously.

Of course Virat knew he should've backtracked and said he'd been joking, but as if that would accomplish anything.

"Yes, you do," he told Jinks. "And you know it, too. They're counting us out 'cause I'm leaving, and I can't believe you're doing the same thing."

"Shut up, Vi. Don't act like you don't know how important you are to the side," said Jinks in a tone he never used on anyone, least of all Virat.

"I'm not acting I'm not important to the side," said Virat indignantly. "I'm just saying that we can't be counted out just because—"

"It's not just," said Jinks furiously. "It can't be called JUST BECAUSE VIRAT KOHLI IS LEAVING. It's because the team's captain and best batsman and half the strength is leaving!"

What was wrong with him? thought Virat, getting seriously worried now.

"So what do you want me to do?" he said with heavy sarcasm. "Cancel my ticket? Stay back 'til the end of the series?"

"I don't want you to do anything, which by the way, would make no difference to you. Just—just—refrain from switching on the TV if possible."

"But Jinksy, why are you--"

"Don't call me by that stupid name," said Jinks with finality. "Get out of here and..."

Jinks caught the look on Virat's face and clenched his fist and hastened to override his last words.

"...go back to your room and sleep. You've got a flight to catch tomorrow, haven't you?"

"Yeah, but obviously I'm not going back with you in this weird mood, Jinks," said Virat, quite logically.

"It's not my mood that is weird, Virat. I wish you'd understand that," said Jinks wearily, lying down on his back and closing his eyes.

He looked completely defeated to Virat, and somehow, in spite of everything, alone. He had given up.

He had given up, realized Virat, given up before even starting, and he could not have his stand in captain and best friend give up like that because of one bad session.

"Before I go, can I ask you something?" said Virat.

"If I said no, would you listen?"

Virat smiled to himself.

"If we'd won this match, would you be feeling less demoralized?"

Jinks nodded briefly, his eyes still closed.

"Then I want you to remember that it was our run out that changed the momentum of the game. We might just as well have won if not for that. Or even if you hadn't let it shake you that much and throw away your own wicket three overs later."

Virat certainly knew how to make dramatic exits, and he executed one now, after successfully shaking a shocked and hurtJinks out of his pretend stupor.

**********

While Virat was leaving for the airport, defeatedly having knocked at Jinks' door for half an hour and got no answer, the rest of his team was there to see him off.

Jassi gave him a huge hug and then pulled him aside to say, "Jinks bhaiya told me to wish you a safe journey and cherish the moment you hold your first born in your arms for the first time because it will not come back."

Virat half-wondered if the wish might have been sarcastic or ironical, but in his heart he knew that it was as genuine as it could get, because it was Jinks.

"Why did he not come and tell me himself?" he asked Jassi, disappointed.

"He's—he's—not in a very positive mood," said Jassi uncomfortably.

"I know, right?" sighed Virat. "Well tell him from me that I trust my stand in captain and that I know he's going to win the series for us. But don't tell him until the second Test begins."

"Why not?" asked Jassi, mystified, who personally thought that Jinks bhaiya needed to be repeated that message over and over.

"Let him fume in silence for a couple of days, sometimes anger makes you better," said Virat. "A lesson I learnt from Jinks himself."

He thought back to their first Border Gavaskar trophy back in 2014, when Jinks had not stepped in to calm him against Mitchell Johnson's sledging, and his 169 and Jinsky's 147 in the Boxing Day test.

Jassi stared at the affectionate smile on Virat's face uncomprehendingly, but he gave his precious Virat bhaiya another fierce hug and said, "Sending lots of love for Viratee from all of us, bhaiya."

***********

A week later, on 29th December 2020, India won the Boxing Day Test against all odds, a victory that would go down forever in the record book of the history of Indian cricket.

And the captain led from the front right from Day 1, be it his calm bowling changes or clever field placements, be it his 112 in the first innings or the three 50+ partnerships he was part of, be it his attitude on the field as technical captain or his attitude towards the two debutants...

Ajinkya Rahane passed that impossibly difficult test with a 100 out of 100.

***********

Jinks had been expecting Virat's call the day they won—if he admitted to himself he had been surprised and a little hurt, too, at his prolonged silence. He did realize he could have called Virat himself, but after that run out comment, could you blame him for withdrawing into himself?

"Jinksy," said Virat in a typical over-excited Virat-like tone, and the moment he said it, Jinks felt all his resentment melting away.

"Virat," he said mildly.

"I see you have cooled down," said Virat gleefully. "I knew you would, and now it's official that I know exactly how to work you!"

"Work me?" repeated Jinks doubtfully.

To his exasperation, Virat only yelled with laughter at that, the likes of which might as well pose a threat to Jaddu's monopoly on maniacal laughter.

"Virat—Vi, shut up and tell me what you mean, or I'm hanging up right now," he threatened finally.

"Remember that bastard Mitchell Johnson in 2014? Turns out you and I are more alike that you thought."

"Mitchell John—oh," said Jinks, thunderstruck.

"Got there, have you?"

"Yes," said Jinks grudgingly.

"You're not upset at me anymore?"

"No. I couldn't very well be," said Jinks. "In fact I wasn't mad in the first place..."

"You weren't?" asked Virat, mystified. "Even after I said that about the run out?"

"No..." said Jinks. "I don't know why it's impossible to stay mad at you, Vi."

A huge smile lit up Virat's face. "Rohit would disagree," he said, switching the voice call into video call, still grinning.

Jinks returned his infectious smile, his eyes crinkling like they always did, and Virat thought of how Jinks would never simply enjoy being the centre of attention of the nation for once, because he was that gentle and good hearted and unassuming, and how under that mild mask, there was a fighter who never really gave up, and suddenly felt such a burst of affection for his best friend that he thought he might explode.

Virat met Jinks' gaze. I'm insanely proud of you, Jinksy.

I'm insanely proud of you, too, said Jinks. Always was.

There he was, again directing the attention away from himself.

Virat smiled again.

He knew this guy almost better than he knew himself, and he was so proud, and so happy, because if anyone deserved this, his Jinksy did.