India were knocked out of the 2007 World Cup after the group-stage.
Sehwag said India did not have tickets to travel back home for two days after they were knocked out as early as the group stages. As a result, all the players and support staff members had to stay put in Trinidad and Tobago before they flew back home.
Sehwag said the early ouster hurt the players the most as it was one of India’s best ODI teams. In fact, he went on to claim that the 2007 World Cup squad was better than the ones India had in 2003 and 2011.
India suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of Bangladesh in their tournament opener before they thrashed Bermuda by a huge margin. However, the Men in Blue were knocked out of the showpiece event after the group-stage loss to Sri Lanka.
"The 2007 World Cup hurt more. Because our team in 2007 was the best team in the world. If you were to look for a better team on paper, you wouldn't find it before or after the World Cup. In the previous edition, we played the final, in the next edition, we won the World Cup, but it was not this team. So this hurt the most as we lost 2 out of our 3 matches. And the win also came against Namibia. And we got knocked out," Sehwag told Gaurav Kapur on his YouTube show Breakfast with Champions.
"You know what hurt more, everyone felt India will go to the next round, and then when the league stage ended, there was a 2-day break. And then we had to travel. But since we lost, we did not have tickets. And we had to wait 2 more days in Trinidad and Tobago. We had no work, no practice, nothing to be done.
"I didn't have any room-service people in my room, didn't call for housekeeping. Neither did I step out of my room. I had a friend in America, from whom I got 'prison break'. I watched the show for the entire 2 days. The next two days, I watched it and completed it. I did not see anyone's face," he added.
India bounced back strongly in the 2011 World Cup, winning the coveted title at home under MS Dhoni’s captaincy.
Sehwag credited then head coach Gary Kirsten for the team’s success in 2011 World Cup, saying: “In the 2011 World Cup, everybody was telling us to win the World Cup, everyone, from the waiter at the hotel to people in the airport. There was so much expectations and so much pressure also. The credit goest to Gary Kirsten.”
"From the time he joined in 2008 to the 2011 World Cup final, he asked us to treat every one-day match we played like a knockout game. When the World Cup came, our mindset was such. We played the quarter-final, and then we did not feel like it was a knockout game," Sehwag further stated.