Aakash Chopra facts for kids

Aakash Chopra, born on September 19, 1977, is a well-known cricket commentator and YouTuber. He used to be a professional cricketer who played for the Indian cricket team from 2003 to 2004.

Today, Aakash Chopra works as a Hindi cricket commentator for Viacom18. Before this, he also wrote columns for ESPNcricinfo, a popular cricket website.

During his international cricket career, he played 10 Test matches. In these matches, he scored 437 runs, averaging 23 runs per inning.

In Indian domestic cricket, Aakash Chopra played for several teams. These included the Delhi cricket team, Himachal Pradesh cricket team, and Rajasthan cricket team. He also played for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the exciting Indian Premier League (IPL).

Aakash Chopra's Cricket Journey

Playing for India

Aakash Chopra started his Test cricket journey in late 2003. His first match was in Ahmedabad against New Zealand. India was looking for a strong opening batsman to play alongside his teammate, Virender Sehwag.

In a Test match in Mohali during the 2003–2004 season, Chopra scored two half-centuries against New Zealand. Later, on the tour to Australia in 2003–04, he often opened the batting with Virender Sehwag. They even had two partnerships where they scored over 100 runs together in Melbourne and Sydney. As an opening batsman, Chopra helped India get big scores in that series. This set up the game for star middle-order batsmen like Rahul Dravid, V. V. S. Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar, and Sourav Ganguly.

On the next tour to Pakistan, Chopra scored 42 runs in the first Test match. In that game, Virender Sehwag made history by scoring India's first-ever triple century. India won that first Test in Multan. However, in the second Test, most Indian batsmen struggled. Only Yuvraj Singh, who played because captain Sourav Ganguly was injured, scored a century. When Ganguly returned for the last Test, Chopra was not chosen, and Yuvraj stayed in the team.

Chopra got another chance to play with Sehwag in the 2004 Border–Gavaskar Trophy. This happened after Tendulkar got injured for the first Test in Bangalore. India lost that match badly, so Chopra was dropped for the next game in Chennai. Tendulkar returned, and Yuvraj Singh tried opening the batting. Yuvraj also found it tough, so Chopra was called back for the third Test in Nagpur. Australia won this series, which was their first Test win in India in 35 years. After this, Chopra was dropped from the team again. Other Delhi players like Gautam Gambhir and Wasim Jaffer then opened the batting with Sehwag. Because he scored runs slowly, Chopra was not considered for One Day International (ODI) matches.

Playing for Domestic Teams

In September 2008, Aakash Chopra played for Delhi in the Nissar Trophy. This match was against SNGPL, a team from Pakistan. The match ended in a draw, but SNGPL won the trophy.

After playing for Delhi for a long time, Chopra joined Rajasthan as a guest player. He helped Rajasthan become the first team from the Plate division to win the Ranji Trophy. They won it again in the 2010–2011 season. Overall, Chopra has won three Ranji titles: one with Delhi and two with Rajasthan.

IPL Career

Chopra played for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL 2008 and IPL 2009 seasons. However, he was later dropped from the team. This was because his scoring rate was considered too slow for the fast-paced T20 cricket format. In those two seasons, he scored 53 runs in 6 innings, with an average of 8.83 runs.

In IPL 2011, the Rajasthan Royals team signed Chopra. In 2015, he announced that he was retiring from all forms of cricket. Aakash Chopra is one of the few Indian cricketers who have scored over 8,000 runs in First-Class cricket.

Beyond the Field

Writing and Books

Aakash Chopra regularly writes columns for Mid-Day and ESPNcricinfo.

In 2009, he released his first book, Beyond the Blues: A First-Class Season Like No Other. This book was a diary of his domestic cricket season in 2007–2008. It was published by HarperCollins and received great reviews. Suresh Menon from ESPNcricinfo called it "the best book written by an Indian Test cricketer."

In November 2011, his second book, Out of the Blue, was published. This book was also by HarperCollins and was about Rajasthan's victory in the Ranji Trophy. He later wrote two more books: The Insider with ESPNcricinfo in 2015 and Numbers Do Lie with Impact Index in 2017.

Digital Presence

In May 2020, Aakash Chopra became a commentator for the popular mobile cricket game, World Cricket Championship. He commented on the upcoming WCC3 game. Chopra was the first cricket commentator to join a digital game platform.

Aakash Chopra also has his own YouTube channel. On his channel, he uploads videos where he reviews and previews cricket matches.