Aakash Chopra- an outstanding Indian Batsman and an excellent Cricket- Writer

Aakash Chopra was not only a spunky batsman, an outstanding fielder, a domestic cricket champion, but also a fantastic cricket writer. He was born on 19th September 1977. He played for the Indian cricket team from late 22003 until late 2004. Chopra played as a defensive opening batsman and was an expert close catcher in Test matches. He started his career as an opening batsman with the Sonnet Cricket Club Delhi.

The journey of Test debut

Chopra made his Test debut in Ahmedabad, playing against New Zealand in late 2003. He started his international career with an excellent score of two half-centuries against New Zealand in 2003/04, in the second Test match in Mohali. Later in the same season, he made a tour to Australia, where he had a solid partnership with Virender Sehwag. They had a two-century opening partnership in Melbourne and Sydney.

Other tours that he made

He made a subsequent tour to Pakistan, wherewith his partnership with Sehwag, he hit another century; India produced more than 600 runs in the first innings. It gave a heavy defeat to their arch-rivals in the first Test match, whereas the Indian team could not do much in the second Test match. The Indian batsmen failed in a losing effort; Yuvraj was the only batsman who hit a century. He got sent to play in place of Captain Saurav Ganguly, who had injured himself when Saurav Ganguly returned to play the final Test. Chopra got dismissed, and Yuvraj got detained.

The second chance

Once again, Chopra got given a chance to play in partnership with Sehwag in the 2004 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. When Tendulkar had an injury for the First Test in Bangalore, Chopra got again dismissed because of the massive loss. He did not have the opportunity to play the next match in Chennai on the return of Tendulkar. Yuvraj was not much success, so Chopra was recalled for the Third Test to get played in Nagpur. Unfortunately, this time he failed in both the innings, as Australia had a series victory over India, for the first time in 35 years. He got dropped from the team as his career average of scoring runs from 46.25 came down to 23. Gautam Gambhir replaced Chopra. It was sad that he got not even considered for One Day International due to his low scoring rate.

Aakash Chopra was selected to play for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 1 and IPL 2. But again, he was sent out of the team because he deemed to be unfit for T-20 matches played in IPL 2; once again, he got a chance to play IPL 4 for Rajasthan Royals.

He may not have got much success in the field, but he got undoubtedly regarded as a brilliant cricket writer. His columns get regularly published in Mid- Day. He is currently working with Star Sports, Sony, and Sony ESPN as a cricket commentator and analyst. He became the first commentator to comment on a digital game when he signed a deal in May 2020 for the popular mobile cricket game World Cricket Championship. 

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