Ivy League degree, Oracle job, cricket career: Saurabh Netravalkar is every desi kid’s nightmare

Over the last few days, cricket fans in India have found a new idol in Saurabh Netravalkar, the Mumbai-born fast bowler who is representing team USA in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup. Netravalkar’s remarkable career trajectory has left many envious – not only did the 32-year-old follow his passion of cricket, he is also a software engineer who coded his way to an American citizenship.

Netravalkar once represented the Mumbai cricket team, earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Mumbai and went on to do a master’s from USA’s Ivy League Cornell University. In 2013, he developed an app called CricDeCode to help cricketers analyse their performance on field. For the last eight years, he has worked at the computer technology company Oracle, where he is currently a principal member of the technical staff.

On top of all this – a career as a techie, a green card and playing cricket at the national level – Netravalkar is also, it turns out, an accomplished musician. A video of him playing the ukulele has been doing the rounds of the internet.

Given all his various accomplishments, it’s little wonder that the techie-cricketer is being hailed as every desi parent’s dream child (and every Indian child’s worst nightmare).

Social media users have taken to calling him “Sharma ji ka ladka” – a well known Indian internet shorthand for an overachiever.

Netravalkar added another feather to his cap yesterday by India’s superstar batters Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in the first two overs of the India vs USA clash at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, New York. The remarkable feat led to many fans asking Oracle to give the cricketer a pay raise.