"What the hell do they think they're doing?" yelled Virat in the balcony. "IF THEY DON'T SHUT UP RIGHT NOW—"

"They can't hear you," said Jinks drily.

"Maybe you can jump," suggested Jaddu. "Land into the stands, then streak into the field."

"WILL YOU STOP JOKING! THEY'RE PROVOCATING JASSI!"

"Sit down," said Jinks, catching his arm. "Sledging isn't against the law, and Jassi can handle it."

"Jassi can handle it?" said Virat. "Has anyone succeeded in getting Jassi worked up on the field?"

"He can still handle it," said Jinks, though he, too, was privately wondering what extreme thing Buttler might've said that Jassi was fuming so much. "Sit down, Vi."

The Indians in the crowd started a steady chant of support: "Bumrah! Bumrah! Bumrah!"

The umpire had succeeded in separating Jassi and Buttler, and Wood was taking his run-up.

Jassi swung the bat wildly—but it streaked through the covers for a four. Virat, who'd just sat down, jumped up again, glowering, to clap. Behind his ear, he could hear Jinks standing up and clapping too. Actually, the whole balcony was.

The crowd's chanting got louder.

Jassi and Shami batted on. And on. And on.

____________

The 'rousing welcome' was Rohit's idea, as much as Virat would like to pretend in the future that it was his.

When Jassi and Shami returned after their unbeaten 89 runs partnership, the entire team and support staff went downstairs to receive them with a guard og honour—a perfect excuse for clapping, yelling and cheering, venting out their excitement.

"Jassi!" shouted Virat as he crossed him. "YOU ARE AWESOME."

To Jassi, obviously, that compliment stood out. For the innings break, everyone kept fussing around the two heroes, who would now have to bowl, too, but Jassi kept playing Virat bhaiya's "you are awesome" in his head.

"You were perfect, Jassi. There couldn't have been a better answer to their sledging than that," said Rohit, slapping him on the back when he had finally got Jassi to himself for a moment.

"What did they sledge you about, Jass?" added Jinks. "What got you so mad?"

"Stupid stuff," muttered Jassi.

"What sort of stupid stuff?" demanded Virat, who had also been hovering around.

Jassi avoided the question. "Forget it, Virat bhaiya."

"Ok," said Virat, beaming, giving Jassi the 16th hug of the hour. "Let's go ou and show them."

____________ 

"Aha," muttered Virat when Joe Root and Jos Buttler came down to bat after tea, Bairstow having fallen on the last delivery of the 2nd session.

Jinks, beside him in the slips, saw his eyes glinting in the direction of Buttler in particular. Virat looked at his team around. It struck Jinks that everyone's eyes were glinting. Maybe his was, too.

Buttler would pay tonight.

____________

"Not so fast, are you, buddy?" quipped Virat in a ludicrous British accent as he missed one of Siraj's bouncers. "Not quite so bold either, are you, as when you're 'keeping?"

Buttler turned to Virat to fire something back, something vulgar.

Jassi slunk up to Virat, it being the gap between two overs. "Don't, Virat bhaiya, let it go."

"Leave it all to me, Jass."

"You don't have to sledge them. We don't have to sledge them to win," said Jassi.

"He didn't think of that two hours ago." Virat frowned at Jassi, surprised at the tone.

"Just because they sledged doesn't mean we have to." Jassi turned to mark his run-up.

"I told you to leave it all to me."

___________

Things progressively got uglier between the slip cordon and Buttler and Robinson. Siraj hit Robinson on the chest over a delivery and got into his face, staring. Virat felt quite proud of him.

But Jassi came up to him again before the next over.

"Why are we doing this, Virat bhaiya?"

"Doing what?" asked Rohit, baffled.

"Acting like jerks to the opposition?"

"We need to give them hell. They deserve it," said Virat with conviction.

"Buttler's like you, rage doesn't distract him—it fires him up," said Jassi.

"Not fired up at the moment," snorted Jaddu. "He looks like a chicken caught in the headlights."

Buttler must've caught that, because he turned to face them and looked at Jassi.

"Told you so, mate," he said in a nasty voice.

Jassi glanced from Buttler to Virat and walked away.

Virat strode up to Buttler.

"Look, Joseph Buttler, if I see you targeting my juniors again, I'll get my bowlers to break your neck," snarled Virat. "And they're quite capable of it."

However, Jassi did not look back.

__________

"See, Jass," said Virat in his over-excited mode, having managed to bag a seat beside Jassi during the bus journey after their historic victory at Lord's (Jassi had been highly in demand that day). "We won. We won!"

"We won," agreed Jassi.

"With sledging," said Virat snidely. "We'll never know if we would've won without it."

"I don't like it, Virat bhaiya," said Jassi firmly.

"That's because you're nice," said Virat, ruffling his hair. "You know, a nice guy, like Jinks."

"You don't have to be a nice guy to hate what we did out in the field in bouts—specially with Buttler—"

"Hate?" said Virat, nose wrinkled.

"I did hate it."

"Because I goaded Jos a bit?" said Virat, confused; now it was 'Jos' again, because their team didn't really have a problem with Buttler, they were quite friendly with him.

"A bit?" demanded Jassi.

"Um," said Virat. "A lot."

"You say terrible stuff while sledging, Virat bhaiya!"

"So does he!" cried Virat.

"But so do you!" said Jassi. "If someone steals from you, will you go and steal from him?"

"It—well, it beats me," said Virat, stumped. "Didn't they say horrible stuff to you? I mean—you were angry—you were angry, Jassi—"

"Because I couldn't defend you!" finally exploded Jassi. "They were saying awful stuff about you, how you sledge people, how our team—led by you—intimidates the opposition in ways apart from our game—and I couldn't defend you! And you did the exact same thing today! Again!"

"That's what got you angry?" said Virat incredulously. "But we're proud of intimidating the opposition, you should've said you don't give a damn about what they think of us—"

"I care about what they think of you," said Jassi fiercely. "And I want everyone to respect you. Maybe everyone does a bit of sledging, but you get carried away, Virat bhaiya, you do cross boundaries at times."

Virat felt his whole face flushing.

"I didn't know that bothered you," he said, subdued. "Well, of course I know I cross boundaries sometimes...I thought you all were ok with it."

"I'm not," said Jassi. "It just gives people an excuse to trash talk about you."

Virat decided against pointing out that he didn't mind people trashing talking about him, because clearly it bothered Jassi—he had actually lost it on the field for the first time in his life—because they were trash talking about him...?

"I'll not cross boundaries again," he said, hoping he sounded meek enough. "I'll not get personal. At least."

"You'll not sledge at all again?" said Jassi hopefully.

"Let's begin with small steps," said Virat hastily. "Because I don't want to promise something I'll end up breaking—"

"Ok," said Jassi. "You can start with not getting personal with the opposition, no matter how they goad you."

Funny, thought Virat. They goaded him by goading Jassi, and now Jassi was scolding him.

"Promise." Virat ruffled Jassi's hair again. "Not angry anymore?"

"I wasn't angry, Virat bhaiya," began Jassi, mortified at the idea of being angry with his idol, even if he kind of had been.

"Of course," said Virat, laughing. "Nice guys don't get angry. You're awesome, Jassi. With the bat. With the ball. With your niceness."

Jassi thought he detected a hint of sarcasm at the last phrase, but Virat bhaiya had his arm around him now, squeezing, and he didn't really mind.

"If you go after one of us, you're going after the whole team. All eleven of us will come right back."

https://sports.ndtv.com/england-vs-india-2021/eng-vs-ind-mohammed-shami-jasprit-bumrah-get-rousing-welcome-from-teammates-after-batting-heroics-at-lords-watch-2511815