ICC World Twenty20 2007 was a dream tournament for the Indian team. Before the competition, a few of the senior players had pulled out. Former Indian captain MS Dhoni was chosen to lead the side and the rest is history. None gave them a chance ahead of the tournament but they surprised everyone by lifting the silverware.
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Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri was a part of the broadcasting team of the World Cup. Ahead of the semi-final between India and Australia, he wrote a column for ESPNCricinfo predicting Australia’s win over India. Australia had some star players like Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Brett Lee, Michael Clarke, etc in their ranks.
However, the Indian team stunned the Australians by registering an emphatic win to seal their place in the final. Interestingly, Shastri was only hosting the post-match presentation and Dhoni took no time in reminding that the Indian team proved his prediction wrong.
MS Dhoni Once Took a Dig at Ravi Shastri After India’s ICC World Twenty20 2007 Win vs Australia
Before answering any further questions, Dhoni was quick in making Shastri remember his comments. It has to be said that Shastri was very professional and behaved like a sport whilst smiling when Dhoni took a dig at him.
“Before I start I should say I read an article by you in Cricinfo. You’d said Australia were the favorites. Today I think me and the boys, we proved you wrong,” said Dhoni in the post-match presentation.
Initially, the Indian team struggled in the semi-final match. However, the duo of all-rounder Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni turned the game in India’s favour. Singh scored 70 (30) and Dhoni scored 36 (18) to help India post a total of 188/5. India won the match by 15 runs in the end, courtesy of a match-winning spell by pacer S Sreesanth (4-1-12-2).
Ravi Shastri reacted to the incident in 2021
In 2021, ESPNCricinfo had shared the same incident on their Twitter handle. Shastri, who is very witty, took no time in trolling them by a hilarious response.
Shastri and Dhoni worked a lot with each other when Shastri became the team director and head coach of India. Since then, Shastri has always spoken highly about Dhoni. During the ICC T20 World Cup in 2021, Shastri was the head coach, whereas Dhoni was the mentor of the Indian team.
