Ravi Bopara

On 30 August, in the fourth match of huge series, he featured in a prominent tail end partnership, this time with Stuart Broad as the pair added an unbeaten 99 for the 8th wicket to defeat India at Old Trafford.

Bopara finished 43 not out.

He could not continue his good form, making just 11 in the next match.

Ravinder Singh Bopara (born 4 May 1985) is an English cricketer who plays for Sussex County Cricket Club in one day cricket and has represented the England national team.

Originally a top-order batsman, his developing medium pace bowling has made him a batting all rounder in the one day game.

Bopara has also played for Karachi Kings in the Pakistan Super League, Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League, Sydney Sixers in the Big Bash League and Chittagong Vikings in the Bangladesh Premier League.

Bopara made his first-class debut for Essex in May 2002.

In 2003 and 2004, he played several matches for England U-19s, including in the 2004 U-19 Cricket World Cup.

In the 2005 season, he scored 880 first-class runs, including his first first-class century.

He also hit 135 in a non-first-class match against the touring Australians, putting on 270 for the second wicket with Alastair Cook, and in 2006 he was selected for England A in their March tour of the West Indies, as well as their matches against the touring Sri Lankans and Pakistanis in the summer of that year.

In July, he was selected in England's 30-man provisional squad for the 2006 Champions Trophy.

Bopara was first called up to the England One Day International team in 2007, before a difficult Test debut in Sri Lanka saw him dropped in early 2008 after a string of three ducks.

In January 2007 Kevin Pietersen sustained a rib injury in England's first One Day International against Australia, keeping him out of the remainder of the series.

Bopara was called up as his replacement, and made his ODI debut on 2 February.

Later that month, he was named in the England squad for the 2007 Cricket World Cup, and he played his second ODI in England's second match of that tournament.

In England's match against Sri Lanka, Bopara was named man of the match for his 52 off 53 balls, which brought England to within three runs of victory from a seemingly hopeless position.

The partnership for the seventh wicket was an English World Cup record and was the second record partnership made by Bopara in the tournament, following his record fifth wicket partnership with Paul Collingwood against Canada.

In the first three games of the limited overs series against India Bopara was ineffectual, not batting in the first game and then making just 27 runs in the next two games combined.

He made his Test debut in the tour to Sri Lanka in December 2007 but had a poor series, scoring only 42 runs in five innings including three ducks, and taking only one wicket at an average of 81.

He regained his place for a Test against the West Indies in the winter of 2008–09; on his return to the side, Bopara became the fifth batsman to score three consecutive Test centuries for England.

One BBC commentator described him as "well out of his depth at Test level", and Bopara was subsequently selected in the ODI squad but not the Test squad for the tour to New Zealand in early 2008.

However, he returned to the Test squad for the fourth Test against South Africa in August 2008, following a good season for Essex in the County Championship.

On 4 June 2008, Bopara recorded his highest List A score in the quarter-finals of the Friends Provident Trophy.

He scored an unbeaten 201 runs off 138 balls, including 18 fours and 10 sixes.

Bopara's score was just the eighth instance of a double hundred in the history of List A cricket and the highest for six years.

On 9 September 2008 Bopara was named in England's 15-man squad for the inaugural Stanford Super Series in Antigua.

There, England took on the Middlesex Crusaders and Trinidad and Tobago before facing the Stanford All-Stars on 1 November.

The winning players in that match would have earned $1million each, with a further $1million being shared between the four players left out of the side.

This never came to fruition, however, as England fell to a heavy defeat in the final.

The same day, Bopara was also handed an Increment Contract by the ECB.

Bopara made just three in the first ODI in New Zealand.

He made 23 in the next match, but did not bowl in either matches.

In the return series in England, Bopara got off to a slow start, making scores of 10 and 27 in his first two matches.

However, in the fourth match of the series he made 58 although it wasn't enough to prevent a narrow defeat for England.

He made 30 in the final match of the series, leaving him with over 100 runs in the matches he played in.

He played in the first ODI against South Africa but was not required to bat, instead just bowling two overs and conceding 11 runs.

Despite this success, during the 2009 Ashes Bopara again struggled and was dropped for the final Test of the series.

Bopara was a member of the England team that won the 2010 ICC World Twenty20.

At the start of the 2016 season he took over the captaincy of the Essex one day team.

He was born into an immigrant Indian Punjabi Sikh family, educated at Brampton Manor School, East Ham and Barking Abbey School, Bopara attended Frenford Clubs and represented Essex Boys and Girls Clubs in their representative U14 cricket team.