The 2007 World T20 in South Africa changed the landscape of Indian cricket for betterment. A young team led by MS Dhoni defeated arch-rivals Pakistan in the finals to start a new chapter in Indian cricket. Meanwhile, team manager of that side, Lalchand Rajput recently revealed an interesting anecdote when Rahul Dravid convinced Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar to not play the tournament.
During that time, the likes of Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, and Laxman dominated Indian cricket. The stalwarts consistently performed for India to take the sport to bigger heights. However, Team India did not have the ‘big three’ – Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid – when they travelled to South Africa for the tournament.
Dravid asked Tendulkar, Ganguly, not to play World T20 – Lalchand Rajput
The selectors were planning to build a young team for the future. As a result, the likes of Rohit Sharma, Robin Uthappa, Yusuf Pathan, and Joginder Sharma made into the side. Lalchand Rajput revealed it was Dravid who convinced Tendulkar and Ganguly to not play the World T20.
“Yes, it is true (Rahul Dravid asked Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly to not play the 2007 T20 World Cup),” Rajput said to Sportskeed.
“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 when we won the World Cup,” Rajput added.
Divulging further, Lalchand Rajput admitted that they didn’t want to take any stress during the tournament. The atmosphere of the dressing room was also quite light which reflected on the performance of the players. India continued the same brand of cricket and after four years they won the ICC World Cup in 2011. The success under MS Dhoni continued to flourish as India won the Champions Trophy in 2013.