Agni Chopra is playing his cards right in domestic cricket. Since making his debut for Mizoram in the Ranji Trophy Plate League, Chopra scored four centuries in his first four first-class games in his maiden season. He was the first batter to score centuries in four first-class matches.
Agni slammed 105, 101, 114, 10, 164, 15, 166 and 92 in his first four Ranji games.
His feat is comparable to legendary Australian cricketer Don Bradman who scored 100 runs in 22 balls in a domestic game in 1931.
This prompted Thiruvananthapuram MP and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor to tweet about him.
He posted on X: “As one who browses Indian domestic scores whenever he can, I came up short with this amazing find — an Indian batsman who averages a Bradmanesque 99.06 in 9 first-class matches, with 8 centuries and 4 fifties in 17 innings! His name is AgniDev Chopra, he was born in Detroit, and he plays for Mizoram!”
His strike continued with a match against Arunachal Pradesh at the Gujarat College Ground in Ahmedabad where he scored 218 against just 269 deliveries.
Who is Agni Chopra?
Agni Dev Chopra is the son of filmmaker and 3 Idiots director Vidhu Vinod Chopra and film critic Anupama Chopra. He was born in Detroit, US and will turn 26 next week.
He earlier represented Mumbai in the under-19 and under-23 games. According to reports, he was advised by his coach Khuspreet Singh to get more time and experience on the field by playing for other teams.
In his maiden Ranji Trophy Plate League, Chopra scored 939 runs in six matches at an average of 78.25 and a strike rate of 103.30 with five hundreds and three fifties to show for his efforts.
“People will say what they have to say but, at the end of the day, it’s your performance and there are lot many players who are playing in the same division and not scoring that many runs. The standard is same for everyone,” Chopra had told PTI last season.
The Plate Group of the Ranji Trophy is a lower tier of the tournament where six teams compete against each other in a separate knockout tournament. The top four teams from the Plate Group advance to the knockouts, and the finalists qualify for the Elite division for the following season.
