Essex have announced that Barking-born Varun Chopra has retired from professional cricket.

Chopra, 34, is an Essex Academy graduate and made 425 appearances across all formats in his career, scoring 17,995 runs.

Chopra made his first-class debut for Essex in 2006 and scored a century on his Championship debut against Gloucestershire a few months later.

In doing so, he became the youngest Essex player at the time (18 years 338 days) to score a century in county cricket.

Chopra, who played for Ilford, moved to Warwickshire in 2010. It was a good move for Varun, passing 1,000 Championship runs on multiple occasions and lifting the Division One trophy in 2012.

He also excelled in white-ball cricket and notably, skippered the Bears to their maiden T20 title in 2014.

After a loan spell back at Chelmsford in 2016, the move was made permanent and more success followed.

He played his part in Essex winning a first Championship title in 25 years in 2017.

He was named Eagles player of the year in 2017 and again in 2018 when he also received his county cap.

Chopra was part of the Essex squad that secured a famous T20 and Championship double in 2019, as well as the Bob Willis Trophy in 2020.