"I watched that show for those two days" - Virender Sehwag recalls how he dealt with the heartbreaking 2007 Cricket World Cup exit

Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag recently recalled a forgettable couple of days after Team India were eliminated from the group stages at the 50-over World Cup in the West Indies in 2007.

The Men in Blue were among the favorites heading into the showpiece event but failed to qualify for the Super Eight stage of the tournament. They lost two of their three games in the group stages to crash out of the multi-nation competition.

In a conversation with Gaurav Kapur on Breakfast with Champions, Virender Sehwag spoke about the two days between the team's exit from the World Cup and subsequent travel back home.

"So in those two days… I didn't have any room-service people in my room, didn't call for housekeeping," Sehwag recalled. "Neither did I step out of my room. I asked for the show 'Prison Break' from a friend in America. I watched that show for those two days. Then we travelled the next day and came back home."

Sehwag also admitted that those two days of staying back in Trinidad and Tobago, where India had lost their final game against Sri Lanka, added to the misery.

"What hurt us even more," Sehwag continued. "Everyone felt that India will go to the next round. And when the league stage ended, there was a 2-day break and subsequently, we had to travel. But we lost. We had no tickets, so we had to wait for two more days in Trinidad and Tobago."

The 2007 World Cup was arguably India's worst performance in an ICC event. They won only one out of their three games and were knocked prematurely out of the tournament.

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"Our team in 2007 was the best team in the world" - Virender Sehwag

Virender Sehwag also revealed that the early exit in the 2007 World Cup left more bruises than the 2003 World Cup final defeat. While the Men in Blue had an impressive run in the 2003 World Cup, making it to the final, they endured an embarrassing first-round exit in 2007.

When asked to choose between the disappointment of both World Cup exits, Sehwag said:

"The 2007 World Cup…Because our team in 2007 was the best team in the world. If you were to look for a better team on paper…Then you will not find one be it in the past or after."

"We played the final in the previous edition (2003) and we won the final in the next edition (2011)," he added. "But these names weren't there. So this hurt the most as we lost 2 matches out of 3. And we won only one match, that also against Namibia. And we got knocked out of the World Cup."

India lost their opening match of the 2007 World Cup against Bangladesh before suffering defeat in their must-win encounter against Sri Lanka.

Despite the team's disastrous performance, Virender Sehwag had an impressive campaign with an average of 54.66 and scored India's only century in the tournament.

The 2003 and 2007 World-cups were both won by Australia, who remained unbeaten in their title run in both tournaments.