India at the 2007 World Cup

India`s experience at the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies was rather poor. Prior to the World Cup competition India had a memorable home series against West Indies and Sri Lanka. For the 2007 World Cup competition, India had a decent side with three batsman in the side who had more than 10,000 runs in ODI (Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid), world class spin bowling in the form of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh. The team also had an experienced pace bowling attack in the form of Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan and Munaf Patel. Indian team was pitted against the World Cup debutant Bermuda, and the test playing nations like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the Group B.

India`s World Cup crusade started on a disastrous note, as they lost to Bangladesh in the opener, leaving them with two must-win matches in their group. All Indian batsmen, barring Yuvraj Singh (47), faltered against the pace bowling of Mashrafe Mortaza and the left arm spin of Abdur Razzak and Mohammad Rafique from Bangladesh.

India`s next match was against Bermuda where they put up a huge total of 413 against, 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. Yuvraj Singh and Sachin Tendulkar literally demolished the amateur Bermudan bowling, with innings of 83 and 57 respectively. India won the game by 257 runs, and this left them to beat tournament favourites Sri Lanka. Due to their loss to Bangladesh, India`s presence in the tournament depended on them defeating Sri Lanka.

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

The Indian batting power terribly crumbled against the variety and might Sri Lankan bowling attack, with only Rahul and Sehwag showing some confrontation. 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 was hence knocked out of the World Cup. Bangladesh`s win over Bermuda confirmed India`s exit from the World Cup. It was also the first time since 1992 that the Indian cricket team failed to progress to the latter stages of the tournament.

After the World Cup debacle, beleaguered coach Greg Chappell resigned from his post along with all his support staffs. However, Dravid retained his captaincy, which is soon gave up after the England tour that very year, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni took over the mantle of captaincy. Following the poor show at the World Cup there were quite a lot of question and debates raised on the players. Attacks on players homes and protests by infuriated fans, especially in Bengaluru and Mumbai.

The 2007 Indian World Cup Team Comprised:
Robin Uthappa
Virender Sehwag
Rahul Dravid (Captain)
Sachin Tendulkar
Yuvraj Singh
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Wicket-Keeper)
Ajit Agarkar
Harbhajan Singh
Munaf Patel
Zaheer Khan
Irfan Pathan
Anil Kumble
Dinesh Karthik (Reserve Wicketkeeper)
Shanthakumaran Sreesanth