Then there was a fellow who decided to take his shirt off. To his credit, he unbuttoned it slowly, and quite dramatically. There was a very clear motive for his little strip show though. It was a giant tattoo of Virat Kohli right across his left bicep and arm. And all he wanted was for the superstar Indian cricketer to acknowledge the inkwork dedicated to him. The only issue was that he was competing for attention with at least 400 more manic Indian fans all gripped by Kohlimania.

Amidst the chaotic scenes on the periphery of the practice area at Perth Stadium on Saturday, to see someone take off a piece of clothing weirdly didn't seem too extreme. Nor did any of the paraphernalia that was being flashed or pushed in Kohli's direction as he patiently walked around signing autographs and posing for pictures. They included everything from brand-new Nike runners to caps and jerseys, from miniature bats to full-sized bats and as is the case often in these settings, little kids holding posters of the former India captain.

He wasn't done though. There were nearly a couple of hundred crammed against the fence and waiting for Kohli near the exit of the practice area. Much to the delight of the massive Indian contingent in Perth, the 36-year-old made sure they were shown some love too.

Kohli had spent a good 40 minutes prior to his crowd interactions facing throwdowns and Mohammad Siraj in particular. And while he was making some dreams come true on the sidelines of India's training session, his long-time tag-team partner, Rohit Sharma, had replaced him in the nets.

Around 45 minutes later, Rohit was bestowed with the same level of fanfare as he made his way out towards the dressing-room. Same variety of paraphernalia, same unabashed excitement except that there was no disrobing or Rohit Sharma tattoos on view.

So raucous was the reception for both the behemoths of modern-day Indian cricket, that the nets session seemed almost incidental to the main event, which was Kohli and Rohit interacting with their fans. This is not to say the rest of the players were completely ignored. They all got their share of chanting and serenading too. From captain Shubman Gill to even young Nitish Kumar Reddy. But it paled in comparison to the noise and excitement reserved for the two former Indian captains. It was a reminder if anything of the rarefied air of fandom that Kohli and Rohit still occupy on what is certainly their final tour of Australia.

It was reminiscent of what played out right here in Perth the previous Saturday. For, around the time Kohli was making his way out of the Perth Stadium nets, a week removed, John Cena was walking through the curtains at the RAC Arena, less than 7 km down the road, for what was his final appearance in a wrestling ring on Australian soil.

Much like what we witnessed here, nearly all the 15-odd thousand WWE fans in attendance at RAC were dressed in their "Thank You Cena" yellow t-shirts. And in wrestling parlance, the wrestler turned Hollywood giant, is the one who got the biggest pops of the night. Even if there were at least half-a-dozen megastars of the current era on the same show, including two of the biggest wrestling names to come out of Australia in Rhea Ripley and Bronson Reed.

Nothing came close to the reception that was reserved for Cena as he enters the final leg of his illustrious in-ring career. Exactly like Rohit and Kohli yesterday, the 17-time WWE champion made sure he soaked in every bit of that adoration.

It's a great coincidence in how Cena (with 21 million Instagram followers) and Kohli (with 273 million), two of the biggest mainstream names in the world of global celebrities, are making their final appearances in Australia in the same month and starting in the same city. For Cena, this is the officially the last chapter, with only four dates left on his schedule. Perth was also his final foray as a WWE superstar outside the USA, his home soil.

That's where the similarities end however. Though there's been a lot of speculation around the futures of Rohit and Kohli, there seems to be no indication as to this being their final away tours as Indian cricketers.

It would be ironic if it were to be though, that too with Australia as the opposition. In many ways, the starry duo might well have finished their ODI careers in the way they did their T20I stints in Barbados if Travis Head had not ruined their party in Ahmedabad in November 2023. It's their failure to "finish the story"-to borrow another wrestling expression-that famous night which has prompted Kohli and Rohit to hang on and in their opinions, push on till the next ODI World Cup in 2027 over in South Africa.

While nobody expected their visit here last summer to be their farewell from Tests like it turned out to be either. Here they are back again in Australia, with both equally adamant that this is definitely not the end and that the "last time is not now" to borrow from Cena's retirement tour slogan.

Australia made themselves heard to bid adieu to John Cena as he pulled off one last "you can't see me" performance for the ages last week. And they'll do the same over the next week or so for Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. For, they won't be seeing them on these shores again.