Robin Uthappa Hails MS Dhoni For India's Success In The 2007 T20 World Cup

Former Indian captain, MS Dhoni’s rise, began in the 2007 T20 World Cup when in his first ICC tournament as the skipper, he guided his nation to the World Cup glory. It was a World Cup India clinched on the backdrop of several youngsters and brave decisions by MS Dhoni.

Former Indian batsman Robin Uthappa has lauded the keeper-batsman for the success tasted by the team. India did not particularly enter the tournament as favourites.

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However, they held their nerve in all the pressure situations, including the final against Pakistan and the victorious bowl-out game against the arch-rivals. The men in blue also overcame a power-packed Australia in the semi-final, who won the fourth 50-over World Cup a few months ago.

All-rounder Yuvraj Singh played a massive role in the campaign while his six sixes against England remains etched in the history.

Robin Uthappa talked about India’s plan ahead of every game which entailed playing a game after warm-up. The right-handed batsman said that instead of playing football, Venkatesh Prasad suggested bowl-out (batsman vs bowlers) and he was amongst the batsmen, who used to get plenty of chances.

“Before every practice, we used to play a game after warm-up, so what Venky (Venkatesh Prasad) did was instead of playing football, he said let’s play bowl out (batsman vs bowlers). Among the batsmen, Sehwag, Rohit and me (Robin Uthappa) used to get a hit very often,” the 34-year-old said in the Star Sports’ show Cricket Conncted.

I have to give credit to MS Dhoni at that point of time: Robin Uthappa

Robin underlined the patience displayed by MS Dhoni at that point of time, which was his inaugural tournament as the skipper. He claimed for Dhoni to have never refused any player, who wants to bowl and hit the stumps even if it was not their primary skill.

“I have to give credit to MS Dhoni at that point of time. At a very young age in his first tournament and his first game as captain, a guy went up to him, his teammate went up to him saying, who is a non-bowler and is not his main skill, went up to him and said, ‘I have to bowl and I am going to hit the stumps,’ and I swear he (Dhoni) didn’t even bat an eyelid and said,” the Karnataka batsman added.

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