India crashed out of 2007 World Cup after losing to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in league stages.
Rahul Dravid captained India in this World Cup tournament which had some young stars in Irfan Pathan, MS Dhoni, Robin Uthappa, Dinesh Karthik, and others. Unfortunately, India lost to Bangladesh and then Sri Lanka, crashing out of the tournament.
This failure also brought an end to Greg Chappell’s tenure as the team’s head coach.
When Rashid Latif told Rahul Dravid he had been wrongly given out
The morale hit rock bottom in the dressing room with Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag even admitting contemplating retirement. However, Irfan Pathan lauded the captaincy and leadership of Rahul Dravid in those testing times, which is not spoken much of.
Under Dravid’s captaincy, India won its first-ever Test match in South Africa and won a Test series in England after 21 years. Also, India made the world record of winning 17 straight matches while chasing in ODI matches.
Gautam Gambhir, Irfan Pathan recall instances when Captain Cool MS Dhoni got angry
Irfan Pathan also recalled how Dravid raised the spirits of Dhoni and other youngsters in the team including him.
“Three days after we were out of the 2007 WC, we all were sitting in a room deeply dejected. That’s when Dravid called us and we went to watch ‘300’ movie. After some time, he said to me ‘Irfan, this is not the end of the world, you played a lot of cricket and will play more in the future as well,” Dravid said.
“It was bad that we lost, you and Dhoni will go on and play a lot of cricket for India’. His words made us feel like we are not dead but still alive,” Irfan recalls Dravid’s words.
(hindustantimes.com inputs)