Thought my India career was over after 2007 World Cup debacle, reveals Robin Uthappa
Robin Uthappa, who had an underwhelming outing in the 2007 World Cup, revealed that he thought he would never play for India again after failing to impress in the 50-over global extravaganza. Uthappa further revealed that India were confident of winning the 2007 WT20 once they reached the semis.
A 21-year-old Robin Uthappa was summoned by the Indian team to play in the 2007 World Cup, just months after making his international debut, but things did not turn out too well for the ex-Karnataka man, who managed to score just 30 runs from his 3 innings in the tournament.
However, despite the underwhelming outing, the management continued to show faith in Uthappa and the right-hander repaid the trust in the months that followed, with his match-winning 47* against England at the Oval being one of the then-high points in Indian cricket.
Reflecting on that particular phase of his career, Uthappa, who last represented the national team in 2015, revealed that he did think that his Indian career was over post the World Cup debacle in the Caribbean in 2007. Uthappa revealed that given he was the youngest of the lot, he was convinced that the selectors were going to throw him out of the side.
“Man, after the World Cup in West Indies, I honestly never thought I would play for India again. It was again a very precarious time in Indian cricket,” Uthappa said in a chat show Homerun with AV with sports commentator Arun Venugopal on his YouTube channel Gethist Creative.
“When a team of that calibre fails in that competition that everyone has been waiting to play in for the last… and they tagged us as favourites given the fact that in 2003 we had gone to the finals and missed out.
“When we lost in the first round, common sense… who would you cut? The youngest guy in the block. You just say now let’s get back to winning ways. But the selectors at that point reposed faith in me and continued to keep me in the side.”
A star performer in the 2007 World T20 which saw a young Indian side lift the trophy against all odds, Uthappa revealed that the side, led by MS Dhoni, decided to take it one game at a time to ensure they brought out their best in every encounter. India, in the 2007 World T20, won every game barring a blip against New Zealand in the middle and reflecting on the campaign, the former KKR man revealed that the side were confident of lifting the title once they reached the semi-final of the competition.
“Having said that, once we got to South Africa, we got to a place where we knew we were a very young side and we didn’t have the stalwarts of Indian cricket. We didn’t have Zak pa, I think Munaf wasn’t there, Dravid, Sachin, and Dada. We took one game at a time and made sure we played it to the best of our ability.
“Once we did that and we started playing well, the confidence started growing. By the time we got to the quarterfinals, we just knew that if we play this quarterfinal well… and once we won the quarterfinal we felt we had a very good chance. We said we were just two games away, so we stick to doing what we were doing. We were riding high on confidence.”
Uthappa, who batted at No.3 for India in the triumphant 2007 WT20 campaign, further revealed that there was an overwhelmingly positive vibe within the camp in the series, something, he believes, helped the team a great deal.
“Not even a single negative feeling in that whole campaign. So, I think we just built on that and really enjoyed each other’s company and each other’s success. We wanted to play well and win. We didn’t understand the enormity of our achievement till we came back to India.”
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