When Virender Sehwag found solace through TV show Prison Break after the 2007 World Cup debacle

Virender Sehwag would also describe the 2007 ODI team to be superior compared to both the 2003 and 2011 teams.

Virender Sehwag finding solace through Prison Break

The year 2007 is a crucial period in the history of Indian men's cricket for more than one reason. Of course, the year saw Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his young brigade triumph in South Africa and lift the inaugural T20 World Cup. India would face off against the very talented Pakistani side in the final and the close content which came down to the wire is permanently etched in the minds of cricket lovers.

The third ball of the Joginder Sharma over saw Pakistan's Misbah-ul-Haq (who had already belted two sixes off the first two deliveries of the final over of the match) try out a ramp shot to send the ball over the infield for a boundary. But little did he know that the slight miscue would bring India's Sridharan Sreesanth into play who, positioned at short fine leg, would take the catch and send a whole nation into a frenzy.

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Interestingly, only a couple of months prior, the Indian team had faced one of its worst setbacks in international cricket, which came in the form of an exit from the 2007 ODI world cup. Rahul Dravid & Co. were ousted from the tournament held in West Indies on a humiliating note which meant that they couldn't even go past the initial round-robin stage. Having managed to defeat only Bermuda and losing comprehensively against both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the Boys in Blue returned home with a dismal performance behind them.

For Virender Sehwag, who was a crucial member of the Indian batting unit, the disappointing turn of events seems etched quite prominently in his memory. Describing the 2007 ODI Indian team as arguably the best in the world at the time, one that he says was superior in terms of talent and credibility on paper compared to both 2003 and 2011 world cup teams, the swashbuckling batsman recalled the aftermath of the infamous exit in a recent interview. And quite fascinatingly, it was the hit US TV show Prison Break that offered him the required solace during that tough little phase.

"We had played a world cup final before 2007 and (four years later), we even managed to win the final in 2011. But both of these teams didn't have the credibility that the 2007 team did. That's why it hurt the most when we lost two out of three games and won only against Bermuda. Also, everyone believed that India will be part of the next stage anyway so, after the league stage got over, we were given a two-day break in Trinidad & Tobago before we could travel back. We didn't have any practice or any work to do so during those two days, I didn't get any housekeeping done nor did I step out of my room. My friend/relative in USA sent me Prison Break and I watched & finished the show in those two days. I saw no one's face," said Sehwag on Breakfast with Champions with Gaurav Kapur.

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