While the 71-year-old filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra dominating the headlines with his multiple wins at the Filmfare Awards for his outstanding return to filmmaking with 12th Fail, his son Agni Dev Chopra is slowly making his place in the cricket fans' hearts with outrageously consistent performances with the bat in the ongoing Ranji Trophy edition, playing for Mizoram. Having played for Mumbai at the Under-19 level, Agni finally made his first-class debut playing for Mizoram in the Plate Group and has been in smoking hot form having smashed five centuries in eight matches so far.
116, 92, 164, 15, 114, 10, 105 and 101 - these are Agni's scores in the last four matches. Who will say he is making his debut in first-class cricket? Yes, the quality of the opposition may not be at a certain level since it's a Plate Group but nonetheless, these numbers are outrageous and the 25-year-old has become the first-ever cricketer in the history of Ranji Trophy to smash a century in each of his first four games in the tournament.
Even when the other batters in his side have not clicked, Agni has looked a class apart and these are good signs if he has to play in the Elite groups eventually. Mizoram have won two games and lost one so far despite Agni's heroics and are currently in second place in the Plate Group behind Hyderabad, who have won all four games they have played so far.
Agni is currently the leading run-getter in the 2024 edition of Ranji Trophy with 767 runs to his name in eight innings at an average of 95.88 and a strike rate of 111.81. Agni's mother, renowned film critic Anupama Chopra too couldn't stop herself from reacting to her son's extraordinary numbers so far. As they say, well begun is half the job done as this is just the start.
