Chandigarh: After an astounding Ranji season in 2016-17, Himachal player Prashant Chopra, who finished the season with 978 runs, including a double ton, two centuries and four half centuries, wants to win at least one format of Ranji for his state in 2017.
Chopra said that though he had a fantastic season, he wasn’t happy as Himachal Pradesh failed to qualify for the Ranji Trophy Elite Group. “Now I want to win at least one format of Ranji for Himachal,” said youngster, who is in Mumbai to play in the 13th Dr. DY Patil T20 Cup 2017. Chopra has scored 156 runs in four matches at an average of 39 (strike rate of over 162) so far.
“I want to perform well in the coming one-day and T20 tournaments,” said Chopra, adding that consistency is what he was looking for.
“This Ranji season has given me a lot of confidence and I want to carry on from here. I want to get more consistent. I want to improve as aplayer,” said the 24-year-old, adding that he would definitely like to play an IPL team.
“Who does not want to do that? But yes I am not desperate. I will wait for my chance to come. The competition at that level is quite high and I am aware of that. My duty is to perform and I am doing that on consistent basis,” said Chopra.
“Maybe my performance in this season will help me in getting a call for the Deleep and Irani trophies. Even if I get that opportunity it would be a good achievement,” said the youngster.
On being asked to rate his best innings is last Ranji season, Chopra said that his 194 against Goa was better than his 237 against Haryana as he played effortlessly without any discomfort of facing the ball. “Till now that is the best innings of my Ranji Trophy career. It’s because of the fact that I batted with ease. I was hitting the ball effortlessly. I could feel every ball that I was hitting and I was hitting them whenever and wherever I wanted to. I had more than hundred strike rate. At no point I felt that I was at discomfort of facing the ball. I was finding the gaps with ease,” said the Himachal player.
