Ravinder Singh Bopara is an English cricketer who represents England at international level and plays for Essex in county cricket.
On the 4th of May, 1985, he was born. He started his career as a right-handed top-order batsman, but after outstanding performances as a right-arm medium pacer, he matured into a batting all-rounder.
Background
In May 2002, Bopara made his first-class debut for Essex. In 2003 and 2004, he played in a number of tournaments for England’s U19 team, including the 2004 U-19 Cricket World Cup.
He was picked for England A when they toured the West Indies after scoring 880 first-class runs in that season. During that summer, he also played against Sri Lankans and Pakistanis on tour.
Debut
In January 2007, he was called up to replace Kevin Pietersen, who was injured, in a tri-nation tournament that also included New Zealand.
He made his debut against Australia on February 2, 2007, when he scored 7* off 5 balls. With the wicket of Michael Hussey, he even got his first ODI wicket.
When England toured Sri Lanka in December 2007, he made his test debut, scoring 8 and 34 in two innings.
He had a poor series, scoring just 42 runs in five innings, including three ducks, and taking only one wicket.
In June 2008, he made his T20I debut in a one-off match against New Zealand, in which he did not bat or bowl as England won the match convincingly.
Rise to Glory
Bopara was appointed to England’s Test squad for their tour of the West Indies on February 18, 2009, as a substitute for Andrew Flintoff, who was recovering from a hip injury.
He made his maiden Test century in the first innings of the fourth test, making 104 off 143 balls.
In May, he was chosen to play in the first Test of the home series against the West Indies. He hit his second Test century in a row there.
He then went on to score another century in the next Test, becoming just the fifth English player to score centuries in three straight Tests.
Low Points
He was included in the 16-man squad for the 2009 Ashes, but struggled to score more than 30 runs in all but one inning before being substituted in the series’ final Test by uncapped Jonathan Trott.
In 2010, he made an impression for Essex in domestic cricket, earning him a call-up to play for England against Bangladesh in the three-match series decider.
In the decider, he scored 45* off 22 balls and took four wickets to help England win the series.
As a result, he was selected for the two-match T20 team against Pakistan, but he struggled to take advantage of the occasion, scoring just 11 and 12 runs in both innings.
Bopara scored 10 runs and took one wicket in the first three matches of the 2014 series against Sri Lanka before scoring 51 runs in the fourth match. He was dismissed for 17 in the final match, resulting in a 3-2 series loss for England.
He played in the 2015 tri-series between India and India, where he struggled to take a single wicket and scored 13,7,4 in the group stages before scoring 33 in the final against Australia.
Club Career
Since 2002, Bopara has been a first-class player for Essex. In the 2009 and 2010 IPLs, he was a member of the Kings XI Punjab, before joining Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2015. In the Pakistan Super League, he currently plays for the Karachi Kings.
Chittagong Kings purchased him for the 2013 and 2014 BPL seasons. After that, he spent the 2016 season with Dhaka Dynamites before joining Rangpur Riders in 2017.
Captaincy
After Shoaib Malik stepped down as captain in the 2016 edition of the Pakistan Super League, he took over as captain of the Karachi Kings. In the Eliminator, they lost to Islamabad United and were eliminated from the tournament.