Saurabh Netravalkar opens up on how he balances work and cricket

Saurabh Netravalkar. (Source – Getty Images)

USA’s ace pacer, Saurabh Netravalkar, who is a software engineer by profession, has shown how to balance a successful career at Oracle and his passion for cricket with the United States national cricket team. His recent heroics in the T20 World Cup 2024 have brought his journey into the spotlight.

Netravalkar’s cricketing career began in India, where he represented India’s U-19 team and participated in the 2010 U-19 Cricket World Cup. However, he moved to the United States for higher education, pursuing a career in computer science while continuing to nurture his love for cricket. 

The 32-year-old’s dual roles came to the forefront during a recent T20 World Cup match in Dallas, where he led the USA to a stunning victory over former champions Pakistan. In a nail-biting Super Over, Netravalkar’s exceptional bowling performance secured a crucial win for his team. The achievement has registered his name in history books. Netravalkar opened up on how he manages to excel in both cricket and his role as a Senior Software Engineer at Oracle.

“Most importantly it’s the love for it, I am passionate about tech and I’m passionate about the sport so, as long you’re passionate about it, it doesn’t seem like work. You love doing it. You just have to find the time to do it and to compartmentalize, you switch on and switch off, do 100% of what you’re doing at that moment of time,” the pacer told in an interview.

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Interestingly, Netravalkar finds similarities between his two pursuits and applies lessons from sports to his tech career, particularly in handling failure and maintaining a strong attitude.

“I think it works both ways, from tech to cricket, the game is evolving to use data like analytics a lot for strategies and stuff so, knowing how analysis works it helps me know where to look for and those patterns might be a key change-maker between a win and a loss, for the margins are really low in these tough competitive games and same in my tech world, from sports I learn how to handle failure, learn how to bounce back and try to work passionately towards what I want,” he concluded.