The next morning, Virat found himself heartily wishing that he had never undertaken the ridiculous job of waking Rohit up.

After he had banged on Rohit's door for nearly half an hour, and called him about 50 times, Rohit finally deigned to wake up and receive the call.

"What happened?" he mumbled, clearly still half asleep.

"It's nearly 8:30, Rohit! We've got our flight in four hours!" said Virat, exasperated.

Rohit yawned. "Five minutes more."

"No! Absolutely no!" said Virat firmly. "Open your door this instant."

Grumbling, Rohit dragged himself off the bed and opened the door fumblingly.

"We didn't even sleep that late yesterday night," said Virat, shaking his head. "How can you feel so sleepy?"

"I dunno," said Rohit, yawning again.

"We're already late for breakfast. Come down in ten minutes," ordered Virat grimly.

"All right, all right," said Rohit placatingly.

They sat together at breakfast, and in the bus to the airport, and then Rohit requested Zaheer bhai to exchange seats with him on the flight so that they could be together.

By the end of Virat's debut series, he and Rohit knew everything there was to know about each other. Being the youngest members of the team, they were naturally thrown together a lot, but it wasn't just that...

In spite of their rather different natures, both of them liked the other tremendously.

It was like destiny had some hand in their rapidly growing friendship.

___________

New youngsters kept getting into the team after that, but Rohit and Virat remained inseparable.

England toured India towards the end of 2008, and the 7th ODI was scheduled in Delhi, Virat's hometown.

It had been raining in Delhi for two days and on the match day, the ground was gloomy and sopping wet. The Indian team lounged around in the dressing room, restless.

"It's going to get abandoned anyway, why do they waste so much time?" groaned Virat, who the most restless person in the team.

"Think of the people who've come here to watch--think of their disappointment," said Rohit.

"Why d'you even care about them?"

"They've come to support us, Virat!"

"Yes, but still. They'll stop supporting us the moment we start losing."

"That's not a very nice way to look at things," said Rohit disapprovingly. "You're quite disagreeable, you know."

"You're too kind," teased Virat, laughing.

After a long time, the match was declared abandoned without a ball bowled, but still they got off early for a match day.

"I'll show you around my city today," Virat told Rohit with a hint of pride.

"Not now," protested Rohit.

"Why not?"

"I want to sleep," said Rohit.

"It's not even 5 in the evening, and you want to sleep?"

"Yes, I'm--I'm tired!"

"For what?" demanded Virat. "How can you get tired after doing nothing for a whole day?"

Rohit tried to say something about strenuous practice sessions and late nights, but Virat brushed him off.

"We're going round the city, Mahi bhai," said Virat as the rest of the team was boarding the bus, and paying not the slightest heed to Rohit's protests, he grabbed his arm and dragged him in the opposite direction.

"It's going to rain," said Rohit hopefully.

"I have an umbrella."

"But I don't."

"Jeez, we can share!"

"We'll catch fever," groaned Rohit.

"Serves you right if you do!"

Virat took Rohit to all the places of Delhi he liked, and after a while Rohit forgot to grumble.

They entered Pacific Mall, and Rohit brightened as he said, "Let's sit in the Food Court for a bit!"

"That'll just be a waste of time, and I've still got plenty of things to show you."

"We've been walking for ages, Virat," sighed Rohit.

Virat glanced at Rohit in disgust.

"Is it even legal for a professional cricketer to be this lazy?"

"I'm not lazy," retorted Rohit.

Virat started howling with laughter at that, snorting, "Sure, you're not!" and Rohit soon found himself joining in.

When they were returning to the hotel late at night, it started to rain.

"There, I knew it," said Rohit gloomily.

Virat ignored him and calmly opened the umbrella and held it over both of them.

They started walking awkwardly, trying to stay under it.

"I'm getting wet!" said Rohit huffily, pulling the umbrella towards him. "Make it even!"

Virat looked incredulously at the umbrella, which was now barely covering him at all.

"This is your even?" he cried, as he pulled it back.

Amidst their grappling of the umbrella and shoving each other, both Rohit and Virat were completely drenched by the time they got back.

"Why were you two out at this hour on a rainy day?" Mahi bhai asked in exasperation when he caught sight of them.

"Because Virat is totally mad," said Rohit.

"You're just saying because you don't want to admit you loved Delhi!"

"I don't even like Delhi."

Virat turned his back on Rohit and stalked off to dry himself.

Rohit rushed after him. "I do like a few people of Delhi, though," he admitted.

Virat caught Rohit's eyes and they both laughed.