The 25-year-old left-handed batter Agni Dev Chopra is slowly coming out of the shadows of his filmmaker father Vidhu Vinod Chopra, having slammed five centuries in four matches in the ongoing Ranji Trophy, which is his debut first-class season. Having made a move from Mumbai to Mizoram, after playing age-group cricket in tinsel-town, Chopra has scripted history by becoming the first cricketer in Ranji Trophy history to score a century in each of his first four matches of his career in the tournament.
Chopra, who unlike several kids from Bollywood families, was never interested in the movies and was always into cricket and said that he never asked his father for any favour in his career even when it came to getting into any of the IPL teams, who have a connection with the film industry. Chopra, who played 7 matches for Mizoram in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, smashed 234 runs at a strike rate of 150.96 but it wasn't enough for any of the IPL teams to get interested in him
"May be I am not good enough so I wasn't picked," Chopra told PTI on not getting an IPL contract. The left-hander added that even if his father could call up anyone and get him into any of the teams, making the final XI will still be the team management's call but he would never do that and said that he want to be picked based on his quality.
"For me, I want to be picked for anything based on my pedigree, it shouldn't be because of anything else. I don't think my dad would ever pick up the phone and tell anyone just because I told him to. I have to be good enough so that they are calling my dad, rather than my dad calling them.
"If something like that (his father pulling ranks) happened, may be I will be picked in squad, but surely, would not get to play in the eleven. I don't want to be in a team where I am picked because of a phone call and then I am not going to play," he further added.
With 767 runs so far in eight innings, Chopra is currently the highest run-getter in the Ranji Trophy and even though the quality of bowling in the Plate Group is not up to the mark, the 25-year-old eyes taking Mizoram to the final of the Plate Group to get an automatic qualification for the Elite Group next year.
