T20 World Cup: On board BW8001 with Team India, from Guyana to Barbados

Fun & laughter all around as Rohit and his boys adjust to the delayed and cramped flight
BRIDGETOWN (BARBADOS): To see what a 'family' looks like, you had to be on the Caribbean Airlines flight BW8001 on Thursday night. As one walked into the commercial carrier-turned-charter a few hours after India's 'marathon' semis against England, there were a few familiar faces.
After crossing the business class where Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Shivam Dube and a few devastated England players were the prominent faces, one came to the economy section.Seated right at the beginning here were Rahul Dravid and batting coach Vikram Rathour.
And as one tried to figure one's seat out, Kuldeep Yadav, who had just taken 3-19 a few hours ago, says, "Kahin pe bhi baith jaiyen sir, koi problem nahin." And there you are, lodged right in the centre of a group which has given India a lot of joy.
The flight that was scheduled to take off at 6.45 pm had already been delayed by more than two hours. And now the delay started getting longer as the entire ICC crew and a big chunk of the broadcasting team started rushing in, trying to catch the last flight from Georgetown to Bridgetown, the venue of the final.
India's cricket stars aren't used to this. Especially when they are on a magnificent run and are set to play the most important match of the year. But the beauty of this team is that it isn't complaining about the challenges that are being thrown at them.
In 36 hours, they will be up against the only other unbeaten team in the World Cup - South Africa. But for now, cricket seemed a topic far removed from their world. The Indian team seemed like a party out on a picnic with family and friends.
While Suryakumar Yadav and Ravinda Jadeja were settling down with their families, in came the familiar face of Rishabh Pant, trying to fix the overhead luggage. "Captain saab kahan hain bhai," Surya asked, and you looked back to find the smiling face of Rohit Sharma, seated at the back of the economy section.
As the wait got longer, it was fielding coach T Dilip who appeared with a bag of sweet puffed rice. "Come Dilip sir, give me my share," Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal and Surya demanded.
Everyone was getting thirsty too and when Jadeja asked for water for his daughter, the crew said they had run out of water bottles. "You will have to wait for a bit, we are waiting for more bottles," one of the crew members said.
It was almost dinner time. Food wasn't supposed to be served on the flight, and the kajus, mithas and the dubbas started coming out. While Surya tucked into his neatly arranged dubba of home-cooked food prepared by his personal travelling chef, who was sitting right behind him, Jadeja helped himself to some nuts, even offering some to his co-passenger, who he had just met.
Virat had enough of sitting all alone in business class and he too joined in, pulling Kuldeep and Chahal's leg as Dravid settled into a conversation with Dinesh Karthik.
Amidst all these, you could overhear Surya's wife Devisha - a 'didi' to Kuldeep and Rinku - discussing "how to go about your lives."
Dinner was done, the flight finally took off. Jadeja got busy playing with his daughter, Surya switched on Bollywood thriller 'New York' on his iPad, and as one tried catching a nap, boom came the familiar voice of Rohit. "Chairman saab so rahen hain kya?" Rohit walked in laughing, pushing chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar out of his nap.
Finally around 11 pm, the flight landed in Barbados. Three hours had passed in a jiffy, it was time to say goodbye. "Jeet ke ana bhai," somebody asked Rohit as he carried his tired body towards the exit. The captain nodded and smiled, and you felt these boys-next-door deserve to become world champions.