Ravi Bopara shocked after being excluded from England’s ODI side

Aug: 20, 2014

England all-rounder Ravi Bopara was shocked and disappointed after he was excluded from the One-Day International (ODI) side for the series against India. Bopara was replaced by Alex Hales in the England team.

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“It came as a massive shock. When you get that phone call from the selector you generally think it’s just to give you a heads up you’re in. But this time he told me that he’s very sorry and disappointed and immediately I was shocked, thinking: ‘This can’t be happening.’ But it is, that’s life and I’ve just got to get on with it,” Bopara was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

“He told me: ‘Look, you know you played well for the Lions but you’re not going to be featured in this squad. That doesn’t rule you out for future tours.’ He told me I’d get a call from Peter Moores [the England coach] to explain further and that was it,” added Bopara.

Bopara has been a regular in the One-Day squad and had a good run of scores with Essex. Just over a week ago, on August 11, Bopara had hit a ton (106 runs) in England Lions’ seven-wicket win over Sri Lanka A. The akk-rounder said he couldn’t believe that he was dropped despite performing well.

“My initial reaction was shock. I’ve played a lot of good cricket this season, building on my one-day player of the year award last year. I thought I was in a good place. It doesn’t add up to me. I could feel sorry for myself but I won’t. I’ve been through a lot of highs and lows in my career, probably more than anyone, so I will come back from this.”

Bopara hopes that he will make a comeback in England’s ODI series against Sri Lanka later this year. The all-rounder feels it will be his last chance to claim a spot in the World Cup side. “With the World Cup so close it makes it worse but there is a series in Sri Lanka coming up before Christmas and hopefully I can be involved,” he said.

Complete coverage of India’s tour of England 2014