Who is Saurabh Netravalkar? Former India U19 teammate of KL Rahul and USA's Super Over hero vs Pakistan

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Saurabh Netravalkar became a household name on Thursday after bowling a Super Over against Pakistan to help USA pull off a historic T20 World Cup 2024 win at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas.

The Mumbai-born tall left-arm pacer successfully defended 19 runs in the Super Over against the likes of Iftikhar Ahmed and Shadab Khan. Earlier in the match, the 32-year-old picked two wickets after giving away just 18 runs in four overs as Pakistan were restricted to 159/7. He picked the crucial wickets of Mohammad Rizwan, and Iftikhar Ahmed.

The performance by Netravalkar was stupendous and made his an overnight sensation, but he garnered more curiosity among fans due to his Indian roots. He also played against Pakistan in the U19 World Cup 2010 but as an India player.

The likes of Babar Azam and Ahmed Shehzad were part of the Pakistan's U19 team back the, while the India U19 team for the ICC event consisted of KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Jaydev Unadkat, Mandeep Singh and Sandeep Sharma. India lost that rain-marred quarter-final match by two wickets.

All these players got the opportunity to represent India in the future, but devoid of opportunity Netravalkar moved to the USA in his pursuit to play international cricket. His computer engineering degree from Sardar Patel Institute of Technology in Mumbai also played a crucial role for him in the USA.

Saurabh Netravalkar: Efficient Computer engineer and a death over specialist

Netravalkar enrolled for a master's degree in Cornell University in the USA, and played for the Cornell Cricket Club during the period. He later got employment opportunity with the university as a Graduate Teaching Assistant.

In July of 2016, Saurabh Netravalkar got his big IT sector break by getting a job with Oracle. He has stayed there at the reputed organisation for eight years now and works as a Principal Member of Technical Staff.

Saurabh Netravalkar: First T20I and ODI captain of USA

Despite all the success as a software engineer, Saurabh Netravalkar also maintained an excellent balance to his cricketing career. The ICC lowering their minimum residency for eligibility from four years to three also helped Netravalkar who kept making the right noise in domestic events.

Life came to a full circle when Netravalkar led USA in their first T20I match on March 15, 2019. He was also the captain of USA when the team played their first ODI match after a gap of almost 15 years. Saurabh Netravalkar led USA in an ODI match against PNG on April 27, 2019.

From cleaning the stumps of Yuvraj Singh at NCA in Bengaluru in 2009 to sharing dressing room with Yuvraj, Suresh Raina, Robin Uthappa in the then-prestigious BCCI Corporate Trophy to playing against Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni in the same event to leaving India and representing USA in a T20 World Cup 2024 - Saurabh Netravalkar has achieved a lot by travelling the road less travelled.

He will be up against India at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York on June 12. Playing against country of brith in his new den would surely be a surreal feeling for the speedster.