Former team manager reveals who stopped Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly from playing 2007 T20 Worl
India's 2007 T20 World Cup triumph will always remain special for many as the team with only one-match experience before the tournament lifted the inaugural trophy. MS Dhoni and Co. played a fearless brand of cricket throughout the tournament. It came at the right time for India as the Men in Blue were going through a rough time after ODI World Cup debacle in the same year. Team India went to South Africa for inaugural T20 World Cup without any coach as former India player Lalchand Rajput was appointed the manager of the team who was led by MS Dhoni for the first time. India beat Pakistan in the summit clash by 5 runs.
The 2007 World T20 was a big step towards future of Indian cricket as senior players like Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar took their name back to give chance to youngsters.
Lalchand Rajput revealed that it was then-captain Rahul Dravid, who stopped senior players like Tendulkar and Ganguly to play the inaugural T20 WC.
"Yes, it is true (Rahul Dravid stopping Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly from playing the 2007 T20 World Cup). Rahul Dravid was the captain in England and some players came directly from England to Johannesburg (for the T20 World Cup) so they said let's give an opportunity to the youngsters. But after winning the World Cup they must have repented it because Sachin always kept on telling me that I am playing for so many years and I have still not won the World Cup," Lalchand Rajput told Sportskeeda.
Team India decided to went for T20 World Cup with fresh talents like Rohit Sharma, Robin Uthappa, Sreesanth and RP Singh for the big tournament. While the team was also backed with the experience of MS Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh.
Rajput also hailed Dhoni's abilities as a leader as he called him the mixture of Ganguly and Dravid as captain.
"To be honest, he was very very calm. He used to think two steps ahead because a captain has to make a decision on the ground... One thing I liked about him was that he was a thinking captain. He seemed to me like a mixture of [Sourav] Ganguly and Rahul Dravid... Ganguly was very very aggressive and thinking but was positive and thinking," Rajput said.
