Barely few hours after USA’s thrilling victory over Pakistan in the T20 World Cup on Thursday, Oracle, the global database software firm, wrote on X, “Congrats @USACricket on a historic result! Proud of the team and our very own engineering and cricket star @Saurabh_Netra”.
It was an acceptance of cricket’s arrival in the American culture and Saurabh Netravalkar had made it possible by defending 18 runs in the Super Over. The left-arm pacer, who was born in Mumbai and played for India in the 2010 U-19 World Cup with the likes of KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal and Jaydev Unadkat, has provided USA with a chance to secure a Super Eight berth on their maiden entry into an ICC event.
A software engineer who moved to the US to pursue his Masters from Cornell University in 2015, Saurabh has been working with Oracle, currently as principal member of technical staff.
Canada's Shreyas Movva plays a shot against Ireland. during their T20 World Cup match at the Nassau County International stadium in New York on Friday." Batting first, Canada made 137/7 in 20 overs and then, beat Ireland (125/7 in 20 overs) by 12 runs. PTI
Saurabh, 32, had harboured dreams of playing for India before giving up and moving to the US where he had no ambitions of continuing with the game until destiny ruled otherwise.
He was selected in the USA team in 2018 once the ICC lowered the minimum residency eligibility from four to three years and became
its captain the following year. He lost his leadership but picked up a five-wicket haul in a T20I match in 2022 in Zimbabwe. There was no looking back since.
Saurabh’s rendezvous with Babar Azam was shortlived in the 2010 showpiece event, Sandeep Sharma sending the Pakistani back to the hut. It was not a happy memory overall as India lost that quarter-final contest at Lincoln, Christchurch. There was a silver lining though, he finished as India's highest wicket-taker.
But his inspirational show wasn’t enough to earn him a regular berth in the Mumbai side. His only Ranji Trophy break came against Karnataka in 2013 after he had sacrificed his software engineering career in Pune to devote all his energy to cricket.
On Thursday, Babar escaped miraculously as Saurabh whizzed past his bat on a couple of occasions in the Powerplay and laboured to three runs off 11 balls. Mohammad Rizwan and Iftikhar Ahmed weren’t so lucky as Saurabh finished with 2/18.
“I feel very happy for him now that he has got his big break. Life has many surprises in store and Saurabh has shown that he has got it in him to succeed at the highest level,” Unadkat, his U-19 World Cup teammate, told The Telegraph on Friday.
“He was always brilliant in studies and that was an option which remained open to him. At that point, he felt going ahead with his Masters was the best option and moved to the US.”
Unadkat remains in touch with him on social media. “Both of us were very young then. He always had that raw pace but didn’t have much of first-class experience behind him,” recalled Unadkat.
Lack of opportunities with Mumbai had forced Saurabh to move out and today he is a regular in Major League Cricket. He will get another opportunity to renew his rivalry with his former Mumbai teammate Rohit Sharma in New York next week.
