"Don’t Give It To The Bowlers" - Virender Sehwag Recalls His Advice To MS Dhoni During The Bowl-Out Against Pakistan In The 2007 World Cup

Former India opener Virender Sehwag recalled his memories from the bowl-out session against the archivals Pakistan during the inaugural edition of the T20 World Cup in 2007. Virender Sehwag revealed that he advised skipper MS Dhoni not to use the fast bowlers in the bowl-out.

The Men in Blue beat Pakistan through a bowl-out in their first match of the tournament. Bowl-out was used to decide the winner of the tie match. Indian bowlers made successful attempts to hit the stumps on the first three balls, while Pakistan bowlers failed to hit the stumps at least once.

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We All Had Practiced In The Warm-Ups – Virender Sehwag

Speaking on the show “Breakfast with Champions”, Virender Sehwag explained the reason behind not using the regular as they might miss the stumps with their long run-up.

“So the very first match ended up in a bowl-out. I told MS (Dhoni) that I’ll be going first. I said I will do it as I was confident of hitting. I said don’t give it to the bowlers. He asked why so? I said they’ll mess up with their run-up,” Sehwag told Gaurav Kapur.

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“It happened since we all had practiced in the warm-ups. So they got used to the bowl-out. I don’t know of the other teams,” he added.

India nominated Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Robin Uthappa, Sreesanth, and Irfan Pathan, while Pakistan’s five players are Yasir Arafat, Umar Gul, Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, and Mohammad Asif.

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Everyone Take A Ball And Hit The Wickets – Virender Sehwag

The former Indian captain said that then-coaches Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh advised every player to practise for the bowl-out after the net sessions.

“About the bowl-out, we would go for our warm-ups… Then it was a new rule to be used as a tie-breaker. We were like, ‘How will a tie happen? That too in T20Is?’” he further added.

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“Still, Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh… They would say for warm-ups, everyone take a ball and hit the wickets. Let’s see who hits the most. The batsmen in the team were hitting the target more often. I, Suresh Raina, Robin Uthappa, and Rohit Sharma,” he concluded.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) replaced the system with ‘Super Over’ to decide the winner of the match when the scores of the two teams were level after the completion of the allotted overs.

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