Ex-England batter Bopara calls time on county career

Ravi Bopara has played 494 T20 matches over his career Ravi Bopara says he will not be playing in the T20 Blast this summer, therefore calling time on his career in county cricket. Bopara, now 40, has played in every season of the competition since its launch in 2003 and last year he scored 462 runs as part of the Northamptonshire side that reached the final. That included a sensational match-winning 105 not out off 46 balls in the quarter-final away to Surrey at The Oval.

He first played county cricket for Essex in 2002 and spent most of his career there before joining Sussex for the 2020 season and then played for the past two seasons with Northants. Bopara, who is currently at the Pakistan Super League where he is coach of Karachi Kings, will focus on commentary during the English season instead of playing. "I did think hard about the Blast," he told ESPNCricinfo.

, external "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.

" At international level, Bopara played 13 Tests for England, scoring three centuries with a best of 143 against West Indies, while he featured in the victorious Ashes series in 2009. He played 120 One-Day internationals, including three World Cups, and 38 T20s between 2007 and 2015, while in first-class cricket, he amassed 12,821 and ended with a career average of 40. 44.