India at The Cricket World Cup - India at The 2007 World Cup

India At The 2007 World Cup

• 2007 Cricket World Cup

India, this time had gone to the West Indies with 2 convincing home series wins against West Indies and Sri Lanka. For the 2007 tournament, India had what was considered a decent World Cup squad, as it had three batsmen who had scored more than 10,000 ODI runs (Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid), world class spin bowling in the form of Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble and a decent pace bowling attack. They were pitted against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and World Cup debutants Bermuda in Group B.

India's World Cup campaign started disastrously, as they lost to Bangladesh in the opener, leaving them with two must-win matches in their group. All Indian batsmen, barring Sourav Ganguly (63) and Yuvraj Singh (47), faltered against the pace of Mashrafe Mortaza and the left arm spin of Abdur Razzak and Mohammad Rafique.

India next scored 413 against Bermuda, the highest score by India in one-day cricket and the highest team total in a World Cup game. Virender Sehwag, who was selected in the team only at captain Rahul Dravid's insistence, rediscovered his form with 114. Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh and Sachin Tendulkar destroyed the amateur Bermudan bowling, with inningses of 89, 83 and 57 respectively. India won the game by 257 runs, and this left them to beat tournament favorites Sri Lanka. Due to their loss to Bangladesh, India's presence in the tournament depended on them defeating Sri Lanka.

At the Queen's Park Oval at Trinidad, on 23 March, the Indian pace bowlers made early inroads, dismissing the danger men, Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara early. Upul Tharanga and Chamara Silva consolidated, making half centuries each and the Sri Lankan innings ended for 254 for the loss of 6 wickets.

The Indians batting crumbled against the Sri Lankan bowling attack, with only Dravid and Sehwag showing some resistance. Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni fell for ducks, and Yuvraj was run out for 6. Muttiah Muralitharan took 3 wickets, winning him the Man of the Match award. India were all out for only 185, considered surprising given India's batting strength and the batting-friendly nature of the Queen's Park Oval. With one victory and two losses, India were hence knocked out of the World Cup. Bangladesh's win over Bermuda cemented India's exit. Apart from Virender Sehwag (164), Sourav Ganguly (162) and Yuvraj Singh (136) no other Indian batsman could accumulate even 100 runs in their 3 matches. Ganguly was the only batsman who looked consistent with 2 fifties in 3 matches. It was the first time since 1992 that the Indian cricket team failed to progress to the second stage of the tournament.

After the debacle, embattled coach Greg Chappell resigned after reports that none of the senior players were happy with him and his unfathomable experiments. Even players like Sachin Tendulkar said that Chappell created a sense of insecurity within the team. However Dravid retained his captaincy. There were several attacks on players homes and protests by infuriated fans, especially in Bangalore and Mumbai.

The 2007 Indian world cup team comprised:

• Sourav Ganguly
• Robin Uthappa
• Virender Sehwag
• Rahul Dravid (captain)
• Sachin Tendulkar
• Yuvraj Singh (vice-captain)
• Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicketkeeper)
• Ajit Agarkar
• Harbhajan Singh
• Munaf Patel
• Zaheer Khan
• Irfan Pathan
• Anil Kumble
• Dinesh Karthik (reserve wicketkeeper)
• Shanthakumaran Sreesanth

• India's record: 1−2
• Australia's record: 11−0 (champions)