Who is Aakash Chopra?

September 21, 2022

Aakash Chopra is a retired Indian cricketer who batted right-handed and was born on September 19, 1977. He came from Agra, Uttar Pradesh.

Background

Aakash Chopra began his cricket career as an opening batsman with the Sonnet Cricket Club in Delhi. He was a member of the India School Boys on their 1995 tour of the West Indies.
Chopra also played for Delhi in the Under sixteen and nineteen levels and the North Zone.

Arrival in the International format

Chopra made his Test debut versus New Zealand in Ahmedabad on October 08, 2003. In his maiden match, he scored 42 in the first and 31 in the second.
His form improved even further when he struck two half-centuries in the second test at Mohali. His test career began with good form, which continued beyond this series.

Ascend to Fame

After the New Zealand series in 2003-04, India was scheduled to face Australia subsequently that year.
Chopra was part of numerous good first-wicket partnerships with Virender Sehwag.
They had two hundred opening partnerships, one in Melbourne and one in Sydney.
On the next visit to Pakistan, he added another century partnership with Virender Sehwag as India amassed more than 600 runs in the 1st innings to build up a massive innings defeat of archrivals Pakistan in the opening Test at Multan.

Negative aspects of his Career

Chopra began to lose his spot in the squad as Yuvraj Singh gained a reputation as a match-turning batsman (and all-rounder) for his achievements.
In 2004, he was awarded the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Nevertheless, his performance was underwhelming, and he failed to finish the series.
After the competition, Aakash’s play began to deteriorate, and he was quickly replaced in the opening slot by Gautam Gambhir, his Delhi colleague.
He was not picked for a single ODI match because of his poor scoring rate.

A career in the Indian Premiere league (IPL)

During the first two editions of the Indian Premier League, Aakash Chopra was retained by the Kolkata Knight Riders. He was, however, pronounced unable to play the relatively short Twenty20 game.
In the fourth edition of the IPL, he was recruited by the Rajasthan Royals. His IPL performance was underwhelming, as he scored 53 runs in 6 games with an overall mean of 8.83 and a batting average of 74.65.

Retirement

After not playing for almost two years, Chopra declared his retirement from all aspects of the game in 2015. He has played 10 Tests for India and made 437 runs, featuring the top score of 60.
Chopra, after that, began commentating for the BCCI and may be seen in various international events. He is well-known for his infamous Hindi commentary during sports.
He contributes to Mid-Day and Cricinfo. He is currently under contract with Star Sports and Sony ESPN. After retiring from cricket, he wrote four novels, all of which were produced by Harper Collins.

Career Data

Match	Teams Involved	Venue
First Test	India Vs New Zealand	Narendra Modi Stadium, Oct 08, 2003
Last Test	India Vs Australia	Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Oct 26, 2004
First IPL	Against Royal Challengers Bangalore	Eden Gardens, May 08, 2008
Last IPL	Against Punjab Kings	Kingsmead, Apr 21, 2009

Statistics