Triple Centurion Prashant Chopra Impresses With His Sehwag-Style Play
Oct 8, 2017 at 1:43 PM
The Story
Ranji Trophy 2017/18 got off to a historical note as the Himachal Pradesh opener Prashant Chopra entered the record books by scoring as many as 271 runs on Day 1 before eventually going on to converting it into a triple century.
His majestic effort made him the player to score the second number of runs on a single day in India’s premier first-class tournament. To make things more special, it was Chopra’s birthday which made the occasion even more unique as he is only the third batsman to score a triple century on his birthday. Colin Cowdrey (1962) and Raman Lamba (1995) are the other two.
Credits the coach
After the highly memorable knock, an elated Chopra stated to BCCI.tv that dedication played a key role, in his extraordinary knock.
“It required a lot of patience because when you are batting on 150-160 then your intentions are to hit over the top. But in this entire innings of 363 balls, I hit only two lofted shots and those were the two sixes that I hit. I have not played like this in my career so far; not playing the lofted shots. The first time I lofted the ball I was on 46 to get past 50 and that was a six and again I lofted the ball after going past 300,” Chopra said.
Ge also credited coach Vikram Rathour for helping him to maintain his focus.
“Vikram Rathour sir is our coach this year. He has been talking to me. His message to me was to carry on (batting). At lunch (on Day 1) I was not out on 84. He told me, ‘I want to see your double hundred today.’ He told me to play normally and I followed his instructions. When I came back to the dressing room at Tea (Day 1) on 180 not out, he told me that he wanted a triple hundred from me from that situation,” he said.
The process of bailing out the team out of trouble
Rathour, who joined HPCA as the director of cricket for the current season, later explained that he wanted the youngster to score runs in singles in the opening session to cope better with the attacking bowling approach of the Punjab side. The circumstances called for this measure, but Chopra’s habit to getting zoned out was also one of the reasons this instruction went out cricketer.
“Prashant bats in a flow and when he starts playing his shots, he overdoes it at times. He is an extremely talented player who, at times starts finding it too easy, so I was just giving him different challenges. I gave him challenge to score runs with singles in a particular session. I asked him to if he can do that? In one session it was about not playing the pull shot as they were trying to set him up by bowling the short ball. So, I told him I want to see him not falling into that trap and it worked.”
Comparison with Sehwag
Chopra also revealed that Rathour told him that his playing style looked very similar to former India opener Virender Sehwag. The 25-year-old called this appreciation as a “confidence booster” later on.
Rathour elaborated the reason behind this comparison.
“I’ve seen some of Sehwag’s brilliant knocks in domestic and international cricket and this knock really reminded me of him. I have been around for more than 25 years now but never been in a game where 460 runs (459 for 2) were scored on the first day in a Ranji Trophy game. This was an outstanding innings that he played and against a good attack. All the three guys (Manpreet Gony, Sandeep Sharma and Barinder Sran) have played for India. Some of the shots he played actually reminded me of Viru.”