If selectors wouldn't see him, Arjun would make them **explain why**.
He entered open tournaments. Corporate leagues. Weekend invitation matches where retired Ranji players and fringe journalists wandered in for free lunches.
No celebration.
No aggression.
Just numbers.
91 off 63
102 off 88
76* in a collapsing chase
Always calm. Always correct.
Bowlers began refusing to bowl to him.
Captains changed fields obsessively.
One senior player muttered during a drinks break,
"He plays like he already knows the result."
Arjun overheard.
He filed the sentence away.
> **System Insight Logged:**
> **Public Perception Threshold Identified**
When he reached it—
He stopped.
A duck here.
A slow thirty there.
Control was everything.