Prashant Chopra

Prashant Chopra Biography

Prashant Chopra is an Indian cricketer who plays for Himachal Pradesh in domestic cricket as an opener batsman.

Born on 7 October 1992 in Solan, Himachal Pradesh, he is a right handed batsman and an occasional wicket-keeper. He is known for his habit of scoring big hundreds and that too at healthy strike rates.

He was recently bought by the Indian Premier League franchise Rajasthan Royals for the 2018 edition of the league.

Background

Chopra started his cricketing journey at a young age and played youth cricket for his state. He made it to the India Under-19 team and represented India at the 2012 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup in Australia which India won.

He scored 172 runs at an average of 28.66 in the 6 matches he played at the tournament. After a successful World Cup, he soon became the backbone of Himachal Pradesh's batting line up.

Debut

Chopra first made his List A debut in the Vijay Hazare Trophy match against Punjab at Chandigarh in February 2011. He scored 16 runs off 29 balls in the match as Punjab won by 5 wickets.

He made his first-class debut for his state in the Ranji Trophy match against Kerala at Nadaun in November 2012. He opened the batting and scored 24 runs off 39 balls including 5 fours as the match was drawn.

In April 2014, he made his T20 debut in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy match against Delhi at Chandigarh. He scored 24 runs off 28 balls including 3 fours and one six as Delhi won by 6 wickets.

Rise to glory

Chopra has been a fine player for his state and has grown in confidence with every passing season. This has been consolidated by him as he has scored big hundreds season after season.

He became a regular in the Himachal Pradesh side since the 2015-16 Ranji Trophy season in which he scored 538 runs at an average of 48.90 in 8 matches including two hundreds and a high score of 187 runs.

In the next Ranji Trophy season, he showed his real prowess as he amassed 978 runs at 57.52 in 9 matches including three hundreds. He scored 237 runs off 241 balls against Haryana and an innings of 194 runs off 170 balls against Goa in the season.

In the 2017-18 Ranji Trophy season, he scored his maiden triple hundred against Punjab at Dharamshala in October 2017. He scored 338 runs off 363 balls including 44 fours and 2 sixes off which 271 runs were scored by him in a single day.

He became the first ever batsman from Himachal Pradesh to score a triple hundred and also became the highest scorer of the state.

Records

Chopra has scored 2897 runs at 46.72 in 39 first-class matches including 7 hundreds and 12 fifties. He has also scored 1882 runs at 38.40 in 51 List A matches including 5 hundreds and 6 fifties.

He has also played 28 T20s and scored 806 runs at an average of 33.58.