On This Day: Birthday of Aakash Chopra who turned into commentator and cricket expert

September 19, 1977, is the birthday of Aakash Chopra, who started his career as a top-order batter and turned into a commentator, cricket expert, and writer. Because of the amazing batting displays in domestic cricket, the Team India selectors did not hesitate to call up Chopra to make an opening pair with Virender Sehwag.

Sehwag was known for his swashbuckling batting, and on the other side, Chopra was a cool, calm batter focused on copybook cricket. The team management had high hopes for the opening pair. Chopra started his international career with a forty-plus-run innings against New Zealand during a home Test series in 2003. In the next match against New Zealand, he scored half centuries in both of the innings.

He was dropped from Team India for maintaining repeated low scores against Australia in a home Test series in 2004. In total, Aakash played 10 tests and scored 437 runs at an average of 23.00. On four occasions, he missed half centuries only by a few runs.

Read More: BCCI top officials to meet at HM Amit Shah's residence to elect next president: Report

Chopra revived his career in a new dimension 

The batter tried his luck in the Indian Premier League as well for the Kolkata Knight Riders but never gained the momentum a batter needs to sustain in the fast-paced league. A batter, who was once considered the next big thing, quickly went behind the curtains. His career after his professional cricket career is more impressive.

He is now working as a cricket commentator, has his own YouTube channel where he is used to analyzing various topics of cricket, and also is an eminent writer. In 162 first-class matches, he bagged 10839 runs at an average of 45.35. During this time, he accumulated 53 half centuries and 29 centuries as well.