The 2007 ICC World T20-winning Indian team - Where are they now?
The victorious 2007 T20 World Cup squadThree hours might not seem much to many, but in cricket, three hours can change your entire life. Three hours can make a hasty decision to appoint a wicket-keeper as captain look like a master plan. Three hours can turn nobodies into superstars. Three hours can give the world a new champion. On this day 24th September eight years ago, India won the inaugural ICC World T20 and history was never the same.Going into the T20 World Cup in 2007, India had problems. They had been shamefully booted out from the group stages of the ICC ODI World Cup earlier that year by Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in spite of featuring world class players like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. The entire country was in uproar and changes had to be made. Another showpiece event was coming in September the T20 World Cup, a format in which India hardly had any experience in. Another early exit would be devastating.Harsh decisions were made. Rahul Dravid resigned from the ODI captaincy and everybody wondered whom it would go to. Would it be Virender Sehwag, captain of the Delhi Ranji team or would it be Yuvraj Singh, the promising all-rounder? Finally, the jury was out. Mahendra Singh Dhoni was appointed as the captain for ODIs and T20s, effectively beginning from the T20 World Cup in September.It was bedlam. There were many praising the BCCI for handing the captaincy to a new candidate while others criticized them for not giving it to a more experienced player. But the BCCI remained silent. They would wait and watch. The 15-man team for the World Cup was announced, with a lot of senior players being axed. A new-look team was put together, and they travelled to South Africa, where they made history.The World Cup winning team was honoured beyond their wildest imaginations, from individual honours to a city-wide open-roof bus tour. For many of them, their careers kick-started from that point onwards.But where are those heroes now? Are they still honoured? Are they still remembered for their match-winning performances eight years ago? It’s time to find out:
#1 Piyush Chawla
The only player in the ICC World T20 squad to not play a game, Piyush Chawla spent most of the time in the dugouts or carrying drinks. He played quite a few international matches after that, which earned him a place in the 2011 ICC World Cup, which was also won by India.
He last played for the national team in December 2012. He still plays for his state team, Uttar Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy and for Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League. Though he is vying for a place in the national side, his chances look bleak as he faces stiff competition from the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin, Amit Mishra and Axar Patel.