The international cricket schedule offered no rest. After the record-breaking ODI series against New Zealand in Hyderabad, the white-ball leg of the winter season ended quickly. India started by winning the two ODIs under Siddanth Deva, who tightened the fielding and contributed with bat and ball. The action then shifted to the shorter format, where New Zealand caught a tired Indian side to win the first T20I.
However, India responded strongly by winning the remaining two T20Is. Thanks to these clear victories, the home white-ball season closed on a high note.
Deva took three days at the Shamshabad farmhouse before the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia.
The four-match Test series carried World Test Championship implications. India needed a strong result to reach the final in London.
Two days before the first Test in Nagpur, Deva sat in a hotel suite with Virat Kohli. Kohli looked strained. For three years he had struggled in Tests, making starts then falling to uncharacteristic errors.
"The pitch will turn from day one, Sid," Kohli said. "Ashwin and Jadeja will be key. We need a big first-innings total. I spent three hours in the nets on my front-foot press against left-arm spin."
Deva set his coffee down.
"You aren't playing in Nagpur, Virat."
Kohli froze.
"What?"
"I'm dropping you for the first Test and the second in Delhi."
Kohli set his cup down hard. Shock turned to anger.
"You're dropping me in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy because of a rough patch?"
"It's not just a rough patch," Deva said. "You know it."
"I'm hitting the ball well in the nets. My footwork is fine. I need one good innings."
"Your technique isn't the problem. You're one of the best batsmen of this generation. The problem is the noise." Deva pointed to Kohli's temple. "You've carried the weight of people asking about the next century every time you bat. You're not playing the bowler anymore. You're playing the expectations."
"I can handle the expectations. I always have."
"You're forcing it. At thirty you start looking for the boundary instead of playing the ball. You're mentally tired. The tank is empty."
Kohli stopped pacing. The anger stayed, but the truth landed.
"We have to reach the World Test Championship Final," Deva continued. "To beat Australia at The Oval I need you at your best. Not exhausted and fighting yourself on turning tracks. Go home. Pack tonight. Spend two weeks with Anushka and Vamika. Don't touch a bat. Don't look at a pitch. Clear your head. When you come back for the third Test you'll be hungry again."
Kohli stood by the window for a long time. The anger faded into acceptance.
"The media will slaughter you for this," he said. "They'll say there's a rift. That you're protecting your own records."
"Let them talk. I play for the team. Go rest."
"Alright. See you in two weeks, skip."
The next morning the BCCI released the playing eleven. Social media reacted at once.
@CricketNerd_IND: VIRAT KOHLI DROPPED?! Siddanth Deva has dropped Virat from a Test against Australia.
@Virat_Army_Delhi: This is a disgrace. How can you drop one of the greatest Test batsmen we've had? Deva's ego is in the way.
@Stats_Guy99: Looking at the last 36 months, Virat's average is down. It's a ruthless call, but it's based on current form.
@SportsPundit_UK: Bold move. Dropping Kohli in India is high risk. If India loses, Deva will face the consequences.
@Local_Uncle: Disrespectful to a legend. Form is temporary, class is permanent. The dressing room must be in pieces.
Inside the stadium the team stayed focused.
India won the first Test by an innings and 132 runs. Rohit Sharma scored a century. Ashwin and Jadeja dominated.
The second Test in Delhi was a slow, hard-fought draw. Deva held the second innings together against reverse swing from Cummins. India led 1-0.
---
While the Test side played in the north, construction started at the Shamshabad farmhouse. A professional-grade blue hard court was built next to the cricket turf.
Aadhya's interest in tennis, started by the United Cup, had grown into a steady passion. She had joined a Tennis academy after Deva asked Rahul to look for one good academy.
Aadhya, nearly five, wore a white skirt, blue polo, and pink headband. She gripped a junior racquet tightly.
The coach lobbed a soft ball.
"Step into it, brush up for topspin, follow through."
Aadhya planted her feet, swung hard, and hit it flat. The ball flew past the coach and hit the fence.
"I smash it!" she yelled.
"Strong," the coach said, "but flat shots go out. We need patience and rallies."
"No patience! Rally is slow! I hit it past you!"
Krithika smiled. "She plays tennis the way Siddanth plays T20 death overs."
Behind her, Rishi sat with a thick illustrated book. He turned pages slowly, studying the pics.
"Are you having fun, Rishi?"
"Yes, Amma."
"Do you want to hit with your sister?"
Rishi watched Aadhya miss a ball, spin, and fall, then scramble up shouting for another.
"No, thank you. Her technique is erratic. It looks exhausting."
The next morning they drove to the Nexus Foundation campus. Aadhya ran straight to the field and organised a game of tag. Rishi went to the common room, sat on a beanbag, and read the Panchatantra to younger children.
"The monkey and the crocodile were friends," he read. "But the crocodile's wife wanted to eat the monkey's heart. She was greedy."
He looked up. "The crocodile made a bad choice. He chose his greedy wife over his loyal friend. He lied. You should never lie to your friends. Trust is the foundation of every strong relationship."
Krithika watched from the doorway.
---
In March the series moved to Indore for the third Test. Australia needed a win to stay alive. India needed a win for the WTC final.
Two days before the match Virat Kohli walked into the dressing room. The dark circles were gone. He looked lighter and sharper.
Deva tossed him a practice ball. "Welcome back. You're at number four."
On Day 1 Australia won the toss and bowled. India lost both openers early and were 32 for 2. Kohli walked in.
Starc bowled a 145 kmph inswinging yorker. Kohli's front foot moved forward, head still, bat straight. The ball raced down the ground for four.
"That's the Virat Kohli of old," Sunil Gavaskar said in commentary. "No tentative footwork. He stepped into that drive with confidence."
Kohli batted for five hours. He left the wide balls, punished the ones on his pads, and built a long partnership with Pujara. Near the end of the day he reached 114. He took off his helmet, kissed the ring on his necklace, and looked up at the balcony. Deva nodded once.
India scored 385. Australia made 320. In the second innings Kohli scored 85 on a deteriorating pitch. Ashwin and Jadeja bowled Australia out for 165. India won by 102 runs, took a 2-0 lead, retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, and secured the WTC final place.
Deva left the celebrations early. "I have a flight," he told Kohli. "Go see the monsters."
---
The Nexus jet landed in Hyderabad near 2 a.m. on 3 March 2023—the twins' fifth birthday. Deva reached the farmhouse, slept a few hours, and came downstairs at 8 a.m.
Krithika was preparing breakfast. The twins sat with presents.
"Happy Birthday," Deva said.
Aadhya ran to him. Rishi followed with a 3D puzzle. "You came back for our birthday, Nana."
After the gifts, Deva said, "Those were from Amma and the grandparents. Now mine. Outside."
Two 50cc gas-powered ATVs stood on the lawn—one red, one matte black—each with a motocross helmet.
Aadhya ran for the red one. Rishi examined the black one.
Krithika stared at Deva. "Have you lost your mind?"
"They're safe. Speed limiters. Maximum five miles an hour. Helmets and chest protectors."
"They are five years old. Aadhya can't brake on a tricycle without using a wall."
"I know where the brake is!" Aadhya called. "Start the fire, Nana!"
"It's a controlled explosion," Rishi said, studying the throttle. "Fuel-to-air ratio is regulated by the carburetor."
Krithika closed her eyes. "If either of them gets a single scratch, you sleep in the nets for a month."
"Deal."
Deva strapped on the helmets, gave a short briefing, and started the engines. The ATVs moved at walking pace. Aadhya steered into a puddle. Rishi drove in a straight line, listening to the engine.
Deva put an arm around Krithika. "They love it."
"I hate you," she said, though she smiled. "You spoil them."
"They only turn five once."
By evening, the farmhouse had changed shape entirely. Strings of warm fairy lights ran from the mango trees down to the poolside lawn, and the catering team had turned the space beside the cricket turf into a soft-lit dinner area — round tables in cream linen, low couches, a dessert table crowned by a three-tier cake shaped like a crossed cricket bat and tennis racquet. A hand-painted banner read Happy 5th Birthday Aadhya & Rishi — Krithika had made it two nights earlier.
For a family whose combined net worth made business-page headlines every quarter, the guest list for the twins' fifth birthday could have fit in a single SUV. That was exactly the point.
Suma and Subbarao arrived first, driven down from Tarnaka. Subbarao carried a large gift-wrapped box that turned out to be a wooden almirah stacked with storybooks; Suma went straight for the twins, pulling Aadhya off her feet in a hug.
"My champion driver," Suma said — Krithika had already told her about the ATVs over the phone. "Did you crash it?"
"Not even once!" Aadhya said, which was not true.
Subbarao shook Deva's hand and held on a moment longer than usual. "Border-Gavaskar Trophy, a WTC final spot, and a granddaughter who drives before she can tie her shoelaces. You've had a year, Siddanth."
"I had help," Deva said, nodding toward Krithika, who was directing the caterers with the calm authority.
Anjali and Arjun came next, moving carefully, Arjun holding the infant car seat like it might tip. Their daughter was two months old, still mostly a bundle of blanket and small fists.
"Pinni's here!" Aadhya announced, abandoning a half-eaten samosa to peer into the car seat. "Baby is so small."
"You were smaller," Anjali said, laughing, as Krithika came over to coo at the baby and lift her out with the ease of someone who had done this twice already.
Sameer arrived loudly, as he always did, carrying two oversized remote-control drones as gifts and immediately arguing with Rishi about legal flight altitudes. Feroz followed a few minutes later with his wife, Sana.
Krithika's friends arrived within minutes of each other — Riya with her husband and their eight-month-old son, and Kavya with her husband Nikhil, married four months now, still at the stage where newlyweds finish each other's sentences without noticing.
By the time the sun went down and the fairy lights took over, the group had settled into the loose, orbiting rhythm of people who had known each other for years — children weaving between adult legs, plates refilled before anyone asked, three separate conversations about the Delhi Test happening at once.
It was Riya, halfway through her second plate, who started it.
"Sameer," she said, "you're what, thirty-four now?"
"Thirty-two," Sameer said warily. "Why does that question always come with a follow-up question."
"Because the follow-up question is when," Kavya said, grinning, an arm looped through Nikhil's. "Nikhil and I did it. Arjun and Anjali did it and now they have a baby to show for it. Even Kalyan(Riya husban) did it, and he still doesn't fully understand how car seats work."
"I understand car seats," Kalyan said. "I've chosen not to engage with that knowledge."
"When the time is right," Sameer said, holding up his glass like a shield.
"That's not an answer, that's a deflection with ice in it," Feroz said.
"Fine. The time will never be right. I've decided this. I have a very nice apartment, nobody asks where I've been, I can leave for Bali in four hours if I want to, and I intend to enjoy every year of my thirties like it's the last one. You people chose diapers. I chose Ibiza."
"You went to Ibiza once. In 2019," Feroz said.
"Once was enough. I'm still recovering."
"He says this every year," Deva told the table, "and every year at least one of you tries to set him up with someone."
"I did not," Arjun said, too quickly.
Subbarao, watching from his chair with the quiet amusement of a man who had survived four decades of family functions, raised his glass toward Sameer. "Enjoy it while it lasts, Sameer. One day you'll want someone across the table at 2 a.m. when the baby won't sleep, and Ibiza will feel very far away."
"Uncle, with respect," Sameer said, "I already have someone across the table at 2 a.m. It's room service."
The table erupted, and even Suma, quietly feeding Rishi a second helping of biryani, had to reach for a napkin.
The cake came out at nine, candles lit, lights dimmed. Aadhya insisted on blowing out all five candles herself, in one breath, twice, "for luck."
"Make a wish, Rishi," Krithika said, laughing.
Rishi closed his eyes for exactly three seconds. "I wished for a telescope."
"That's not how wishes work," Aadhya said.
"That's exactly how wishes work. You ask for something specific."
As the group sang, off-key, Deva stood back near the pool with Krithika, her head against his shoulder, watching their children get cake on their faces and their friends argue over who got the corner piece.
---
The next morning Deva flew to Ahmedabad. The fourth Test was a high-scoring draw. Deva made a half-century; Kohli scored 186. India won the series 2-0 with two draws. India then took the ODI series 2-1.
---
In the IPL, Sunrisers Hyderabad finished second in the group stage but lost the Eliminator after a batting collapse. Gujarat Titans won the title under Hardik Pandya.
Deva moved on. In June the Indian squad stood at The Oval for the World Test Championship Final against Australia. The pitch was hard, fast, and green.
Deva and Kohli looked at the surface.
"It's going to swing," Kohli said.
"Let it," Deva replied. "We're ready."