Former India batter Aakash Chopra, who was heard doing commentary in the India vs England 5-match Test series, has picked his top 6 best performances from the Anthony De Mello trophy series. He shockingly left out Indian captain Rohit Sharma and veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin from the list but included an Englishman in it.
The series more or less has been about youngsters and debutants from both teams, especially for the Indian team who were without Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, and Mohammed Shami. It was a series where Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma gave debuts to 5 uncapped players – Rajat Patidar, Dhruv Jurel, Sarfaraz Khan, Akash Deep and Devdutt Padikkal.
Aakash Chopra in his latest YouTube video included Jurel in his list but left out Sarfaraz who deserves a lot of credit too.
Chopra picks Kuldeep Yadav, Dhruv Jurel, and Ravindra Jadeja as numbers 6, 5 and 4
Aakash Chopra picked Kuldeep Yadav, Dhruv Jurel, and Ravindra Jadeja as his number 6th, 5th, and 4th in the best performances of the series list. Chopra kept Kuldeep at number 6, mainly because of his performance in the later half of the series.
The Chinaman hadn’t played any Test match since December 2022 against Bangladesh and he has been included in the playing XI from the 2nd Test onwards. He registered 19 wickets in total and remained the joint third-highest wicket-taker of the series. He had 4 scalps across innings at Vizag, another 4 at Rajkot then 4 in the 2nd innings at Ranchi before the 5-wicket haul in the 1st innings at Dharamshala and 2 in the 2nd innings as England lost by an innings and 64 runs.
Jurel at No.5 because of his nifty glovework and the crucial 90-run knock he played in the 4th Test match at Ranchi where India prevailed by 5 wickets to register a 17th straight red-ball series win on home soil. The Jio Cinema broadcaster stated that had Jurel gotten out without scoring the 90, the series would have been 2-2 heading into the Dharamshala Test.
“At no. 5, I have got Dhruv Jurel. The knock he played in Ranchi, if that 90-run knock had not come, you would have been standing at 2-2. If you were at 2-2, no one knows what might have happened in Dharamshala.”
“Dhruv Jurel batted with the tail, played fast bowling well and hit many big shots too. His contribution in the 2nd innings was also extremely crucial. So I have kept Jurel’s amazing man of the match performance at Number 5.” – Chopra said.
He then named Ravindra Jadeja as the 4th on the list owing to the all-rounder’s splendid outing in the 3rd Test at his home stadium in Rajkot. There Jadeja had a wonderful man of the match-winning performance both with bat and ball. Jadeja first scored 112 in the 1st innings and then while defending 557, he registered a 5-wicket haul in India’s biggest Test match victory by 434 runs.
The top 3 best performances for Aakash Chopra came from Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ollie Pope, and Jasprit Bumrah
Aakash Chopra then went on to choose Yashasvi Jaiswal (3), Ollie Pope (2), and Jasprit Bumrah (1) in his list. There’s not much to explain for Jaiswal who deservingly received the Man of the Series award for piling up 712 runs at an average of 87 including 2 double centuries and the most boundaries.
“I have kept Yashasvi Jaiswal’s double century in Vizag. Why am I saying that? In Vizag also your start wasn’t good, you were stumbling. In fact, wickets kept falling from the other end. Jaiswal struck two double hundreds,” Chopra added.
An interesting addition to Chopra’s list was England’s number 3 Ollie Pope who is the only Englishman to be here. Pope had a man-of-the-match winning knock in his side’s 1st Test win by 28 runs in Hyderabad where he scored 196 alone.
And at number 1 for Aakash Chopra is vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah. He might not have finished as the highest wicket-taker but he definitely proved again why he is so lethal for batting line-ups when the bowling team requires a major breakthrough. He had a sensational performance in the 2nd Test at Vizag for which he was also adjudged as man of the match for returning with match figures of 9/91. In total, Bumrah collected 19 wickets and also missed the 4th Test win.
