The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup saw its first upset when the USA defeated Pakistan in the super over during the group stage match at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas on Thursday. It was India-born American cricketer Saurabh Naresh Netravalkar’s heroic bowling that led the US towards the big win by 13 runs.
But you know what? More than Netravalkar’s bowling, it’s his journey that will stun you. Years before becoming the star bowler for the United States, his cricket journey began in his homeland, India. In fact, in 2010, he represented India in the U-19 World Cup, 2010 playing alongside KL Rahul, Jaydev Unadkat, and Mayank Agarwal, who later joined our national cricket team. There, he was the highest wicket-taker from India. Moreover, he also played in the Ranji Trophy for Mumbai.
With stats like that, you’d expect seamless growth for the cricketer, but that wasn’t the case for Netravalkar. Sensing a lack of growth and opportunities in Indian cricket, he moved to the United States to pursue his Computer Science Master’s Degree at Cornell University. Now, this will be a good time to tell you that Netravalkar is also an engineer — Principal Member of Technical Staff, to be precise — who, while being a star bowler for the US cricket, is also an engineer at Oracle, according to his LinkedIn profile.
In 2018, Netravalkar joined the US National Cricket team for the 2017–18 Regional Super50 tournament in the West Indies. Shortly after, he captained the team in the 2018–19 edition of the same tournament. At the 2024 T20 World Cup, the left-arm fast bowler scripted a famous win for the US in the super over. His performance against Pakistan stands out, particularly when compared to Mohammad Amir, a seasoned bowler for Pakistan who was also part of the super over.
Now there’s something called being talented, but the list of things Netravalkar does is enormous. You see, occasionally, he also sings and plays Ukelele, and he’s pretty good at that.
Naturally, people are simply amazed by him. Here’s a glimpse of the word around him online –
At this point, we’re only asking how is this even possible? How can someone be good at EVERYTHING? This ain’t fair!!!!!!