Vitality Blast matchday interview: Ravi Bopara

He's played in the T20 in England every year since its 2003 launch – and Ravi Bopara tells Sam Cox from Sussex Cricket's Official Newspaper Partner, Sussex Newspapers that he believes the Sharks have a great chance of success in this year's competition.

Ravi Bopara says Sussex Sharks' ‘team of little superstars’ have the ability to go all the way in the 2021 Blast.

“Looking at our squad, it’s very good and strong,” he says. “If you look at some of the players in there, a lot of them have played international cricket and some are on the fringes of international cricket. 

“Depending on the overseas situation, we’ve got an incredibly strong side with a good leader in Luke Wright. Sussex have always been a strong side, when I played against them they were always one of those teams you looked at and said ‘they’ve got a strong side and they’re going to be tough to beat'.  

“We’ve got a team of little superstars and we hope we can go all the way this year.”

Ravi scored his first Sharks fifty in the team's win against Hampshire earlier this month

Bopara has competed in the competition every year since its inception in 2003 and admitted he couldn’t wait to be back playing the format. 

“It’s always good and it’s something I’ve been a part of now since it began in 2003 and every year since then, so I’m delighted to be part of another year and hopefully a few more,” he says. 

“I love the fast-paced nature of the game. It’s crash bang wallop really and obviously, there’s a lot of skill involved in the game. I think it’s only when you play the game of T20 you realise the amount of skill work that goes into it. 

“There are so many different factors in your bowling that you have to get right, with things like yorkers and the changing of pace to bowl at different lines. In the batting, you need to not only hit sixes but also pick gaps and still be able to rotate the strikes.” 

The batting all-rounder has played T20 cricket across the globe and explained how the game differs in different hemispheres. 

Ravi bats for Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League in March

“I find that in places such as Pakistan it’s heavily weighted towards the batters and you see a lot of the results they are chasing and it’s quite hard to defend.

“I also find the grounds are a lot smaller in the subcontinent. In England, you have bigger boundaries and you have different dimensions. Although you still get scores of 200 in England, it’s probably less often than in the subcontinent.” Bopara adds.

Bopara has had an illustrious career thus far, and one of his greatest achievements came in 2016 when he was named PSL player of the series when playing for Karachi Kings. 

“That was brilliant that year. The owner actually told me after that year ‘I wasn’t even supposed to select you, I didn’t know who you were!’ He was a massive part of the selection of the squad and someone said to him ‘I think you should take Ravi’ and he said ‘Ravi? I don’t even know Ravi.’

“Luckily they took me anyway and I ended up being the player of the series and ever since then we’ve been quite close and we’re good friends now.”

This summer will also see the inaugural The Hundred tournament come to fruition, but Bopara expresses how the new format will only impact the overall game positively. 

“This is our version of the IPL or the Big Bash. It’s in our best interest to take it seriously, grow it look after it for the younger audience to come through and enjoy it alongside the crowd. Let’s hope we can get more fans and different fans who haven’t watched cricket before more involved.”