'We had this competition in nets' - Venkatesh Prasad reveals how India won 2007 T20 World Cup bowl out against Pakistan

No one had imagined that India’s first game in the T20 World Cup 2007 will have a bowl out. Moreover, Pakistan being the opposition notched up the excitement even higher.

India, while put to bat first amassed 141 runs on the scoreboard and in response, Shoaib Malik and Co also finished with 141 in 20 overs. In the bowl out, India went with an unusual decision as they used only one seasoned bowler — Harbhajan Singh. The other two choices were Virender Sehwag and Robin Uthappa.

On the other hand, Pakistan chose to go with Yasir Arafat and used Umar Gul and Shahid Afridi. However, the Men in Green failed to hit the stumps even once as India won the bowl out 3-0, flagging off their T20 World Cup campaign on a positive note.

Recalling the bowl out, former India pacer Venkatesh Prasad revealed that the Indian team had gone through the rules and regulations of the ICC tournament and the players had practiced bowl out in nets. Prasad was in charge of the bowling department when India won the inaugural T20 mega-event.

“We had gone through the rules and regulations of the World Cup. When there was a tied game, there was no Super Over back then, there was a bowl out. Obviously we always use to practice it,” Venkatesh Prasad told Ravichandran Ashwin in his YouTube show ‘DRS with Ash’.

“We had this competition between batsmen and bowlers. Most of the batsmen wanted to bowl as well, like MS Dhoni, Sehwag, and Robin Uthappa. We had this competition in these nets,” he added.

I was looking at what was happening from behind: Venkatesh Prasad

After the situation of a bowl out came forward in the first match itself, Prasad revealed that it wasn’t hard for him to convince Dhoni to go with unusual choices of Uthappa and Sehwag. In the end, the gamble paid off as both Uthappa and Sehwag hit the stumps.

“I was looking at what was happening from behind. So I knew who was hitting the wickets consistently. That’s when I saw Sehwag hitting, Uthappa hitting and Harbhajan hitting.

“So we said okay fine. Nobody expected that our very first match will have a bowl-out. It was a tight game. It was a bowl-out. It was not hard for me to convince MS Dhoni, saying ‘these are the guys who are doing well’,” recalled Prasad.

“We had to take our chances as well. We did take a bit of chance there, having Sehwag and Uthappa. I had to back my instinct and make a decision. The slower bowlers are more in control of their bodies and delivery. They had a straight-arm action,” he added.