Former India U-19 Saurabh Netravalkar becomes USA captain
In cricket, it isn't altogether uncommon to see a player playing for a country in which they weren't born. Former India U-19 player Saurabh Naresh Netravalkar will now join a unique list as he gets set to lead the cricket team of United States of America.
The 27-year-old represented India in the 2010 edition of the U-19 cricket World Cup in which he was the highest wicket-taker for the country. The tall left-arm pacer was born in Mumbai and part of the U-19 batch that produced some highly talented cricketers like KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Mandeep Singh, and Jaydev Unadkat.
However, the Ashok Maneria-led side could not repeat the heroics of the highly successful Virat Kohli side which won the trophy for the country in 2008. Saurabh Netravalkar, though, was the pick of the bowlers for India in the tournament which was otherwise disappointing for India.
Like most of the cricketers from the associate nations, Netravalkar also has an alternate profession. He currently works as a software engineer in the USA after completing his Post Graduation in computer science at Cornell University.
The left-arm pacer has played a solitary match for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy and he was also recently part of the Guyana Amazon Warriors roster in the Carribean Premier League although he didn't play a game. In the recently conducted Regional 50 over competition in the United States, Netravalkar emerged as the highest wicket-taker and he will now lead the US Cricket team in the World Cricket League Division 3.
His passion for cricket meant that even during his Master's, he took up cricket and even after he started to work, he traveled six hours to play the game. Now he will get a chance to play international cricket for the USA as a software engineer, who previously represented India at the U-19 level.