The 2007 T20 World Cup holds a special place in the heart of every indian fan. For starters, it gave India one of its greatest captains of all time. The tournament was the birth of MS Dhoni the leader, and secondly, the tournament was even more memorable because India went full circle in the tournament, starting their campaign by beating Pakistan, and ending their tournament in the final by beating their archrivals to win the inaugural tournament.
In the first game between the sides, India beat Pakistan via bowl-out, which was the first and only time that had happened in the short history of T20 internationals, after which it was replaced by the super over. But what was more special about the fact was that the Indians were prepared for every situation in the World Cup, including a bowl-out. The bowl-out was won by India rather comfortably, with Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and Uthappa hitting the proverbial Bullseye, whereas Pakistan failed to hit the wickets even once, inspite of all their three front-line bowlers taking the first three attempts.
This was a testament of the amount of preparation that the Indian team went through, and it was all due to the attention to detail by skipper MS Dhoni, who advised the team to prepare for the bowl-out and approach it like you approach a normal practice session.
MS Dhoni believed that the team should be prepared for any possible situation that can happen in the match, and that included the bowl-out. So before or after every practice session, the team practised hitting the stumps, and it was batsmen vs bowlers. Out of the batsmen, it was revealed later that Sehwag, Rohit Sharma and Robin Uthappa were the ones who the wickets almost with every attempt, so it was no surprise that two out of three were selected in the 5 bowlers for the bowl-out.
Years later, Robin Uthappa spoke about this, putting his hat out to Dhoni, saying that the amount of street-smartz that MS Dhoni had was one of the crucial factors that India were always one step ahead of the rest at every situation in the tournament.
He also added that MS Dhoni backed him to take the ball after he expressed his wish to have a go. “The fact that he agreed without batting an eye shows that he was ready to back his players at any given situation, and that goes a long way to boost the confidence of any player”. This instance only goes on to further cement the claim that Dhoni was a leader who believed in complete preparation, and would not stop until everything was done with full certainty and conviction. It was also proof of a proper leader backing his players to the T, as evidenced by the Uthappa incident before the bowl-out.
