Ex-England batter Bopara calls time on county career

Ravi Bopara, one of English white-ball cricket’s most durable performers, has confirmed he will not take part in this summer’s Vitality Blast, bringing down the curtain on a 22-year county career that began with Essex in 2002. The 40-year-old’s decision ends a run that has seen him appear in every edition of the competition since its inception in 2003, amassing 494 T20 matches in total.

Last season Bopara rolled back the clock to help Northamptonshire reach the final, topping 462 runs and striking a blistering, unbeaten 105 off 46 balls in the quarter-final victory over Surrey at The Oval. That innings, described by team-mates as vintage Bopara, proved to be his final flourish in domestic cricket.

Currently in Lahore serving as head coach of Karachi Kings at the Pakistan Super League, Bopara will swap playing whites for the commentary box during the English season. “I did think hard about the Blast,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “That was a really, really tough one to think about. But I’m excited for new things. I’ve had a good opportunity with commentary, which I think I’d be silly to turn down.”

Across formats Bopara’s numbers stack up impressively: 13 Tests brought three centuries, including a career-best 143 against West Indies, while he was part of England’s victorious 2009 Ashes squad. In 120 ODIs and 38 T20Is between 2007 and 2015 he became a fixture in England’s middle order, appearing in three World Cups. First-class cricket yielded 12,821 runs at 40.44, the bulk of them for his beloved Essex, with stints at Sussex from 2020 and Northamptonshire across the past two seasons.

A sought-after freelancer on the global franchise circuit, Bopara also turned out in the Indian Premier League and Australia’s Big Bash before finishing his playing year with Chitwan Rhinos in the Nepal Premier League last December.