Varun Chopra (born 21 June 1987) is an English former

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who captained the

English U-19 cricket team The England Under-19 cricket team have been playing official Under-19 Test matches since 1974. Prior to 1991/92 they were known as England Young Cricketers. Former captains include Mike Atherton, Michael Vaughan, Alastair Cook and Andrew Flin ...

in series against Sri Lanka in 2005 and India in 2006. Chopra attended

Ilford County High School Ilford County High School (often abbreviated to ICHS) is a selective secondary grammar school for boys located in the town of Barkingside of the London Borough of Redbridge. The school was formerly called ''Park High Grade School'' and as a res ...

and played for Ilford Cricket Club. In September 2021, Chopra announced his retirement from cricket.

Biography

He played for

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, and made his debut for the senior side in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, making 106 in a drawn game against

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, becoming the youngest player to score a century for Essex in county cricket. The latest to come off an impressive conveyor belt of young batsmen at Essex, of which includes former England Test and ODI captain Alastair Cook. Varun Chopra is an opening batsman of considerable talent. He has already impressed as captain of England Under-19s, whom he led to a comprehensive series whitewash of Sri Lanka in 2005. He was on fire himself, averaging 48 in the Tests and striking a half-century in one of the two ODIs. But life was about to get immediately tougher for him and his side – an 11–0 pasting followed on the winter tour of Bangladesh. Varun Chopra joined the Willetton Dragons cricket club in the 2006/07 season to play first grade in Western Australia. Chopra's domestic season started off well in 2006 – he struck a hundred and a fifty on Championship debut and has been slowly making his mark in the first team, even keeping Grant Flower out of the side. Chopra joined Warwickshire for the start of the 2010 season. In 2011 he became the first Warwickshire batsman to score double tons in back to back county matches. After seven, largely successful seasons at Warwickshire, he returned to Essex during the 2016 season. In 2017 and 2018 he played in the championship only when

Alastair Cook Sir Alastair Nathan Cook (born 25 December 1984) is an English cricketer who plays for Essex County Cricket Club, and played for England in all international formats from 2006 to 2018. A former captain of the England Test and One-Day Intern ...

was not available, as Nick Browne took the other opener position, but in limited-overs games he was first choice. In 2019 he had spectacular run in the London One-Day Cup scoring 3 centuries and averaging 84 , but Essex did not qualify for the play-offs. Chopra was part of the England Lions' tour of Australia in 2013, and made a century against Australia A. In July 2019, he was selected to play for the Amsterdam Knights in the inaugural edition of the

Euro T20 Slam The Euro T20 Slam is a planned professional Twenty20 cricket league. The first edition of the tournament was initially scheduled to start in August 2019, with matches to be held in Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands. It's launch has been post ...

cricket tournament. However, the following month the tournament was cancelled. Chopra joined Middlesex on loan in July 2021, primarily to play in the Royal London Cup.

References

External links

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Player Profile
at Warwickshire County Cricket Club {{DEFAULTSORT:Chopra, Varun 1987 births Living people People from Barking, London English cricketers Essex cricketers Warwickshire cricketers British Asian cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Sussex cricketers British sportspeople of Indian descent English people of Indian descent