Rahul Dravid stopped Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly from playing 2007 T20 World Cup, reveals Lalchand Rajput.

Former Indian coach Lalchand Rajput revealed that the then Indian skipper Rahul Dravid stopped experienced players like Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly from playing the 2007 T20 World Cup in South Africa.

On a live chat with Indranil Basu on Sportskeeda Cricket's Facebook page, Lalchand Rajput spoke about how it was the mentality of the senior players to give a chance to the younger players to go and play a fearless brand of cricket under a new skipper in the form of MS Dhoni. India ended up winning the tournament against all the odds and that campaign brought out a lot of young stars like Rohit Sharma who became an essential part of the Indian cricket team in later years.

"Yes, it is true (Rahul Dravid stopping Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly from playing the 2007 T20 World Cup). Rahul Dravid was the captain in England and some players came directly from England to Johannesburg (for the T20 World Cup) so they said let's give an opportunity to the youngsters. But after winning the World Cup they must have repented it because Sachin always kept on telling me that I am playing for so many years and I have still not won the World Cup," Lalchand Rajput said.

MS Dhoni was a mixture of Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid: Lalchand Rajput

This was the first time that the world saw MS Dhoni's leadership and the way he was calm during crunch moments, and the world took note of his superb decision making in crucial times. Lalchand Rajput also analysed the growth of MS Dhoni as a skipper and said that he believed that MS Dhoni was going to be one of India's most successful captains.

"To be very honest Dhoni was very very calm and used to think two steps ahead of the opponent and he was always a thinking captain. He was a mixture of Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. Ganguly used to give players the confidence and he was the one who changed the mentality of the Indian team so I think that carried forward with Dhoni because even he gave opportunities to players and if he saw potential in someone he used to give him ample opportunities. Dhoni will never show any evasive action on the ground and that helped the players in giving their best," Lalchand Rajput asserted.