Once upon a time, Saurabh Netravalkar dreamed of running out decked in a blue uniform onto the Wankhede Stadium pitch. But on Saturday night, he'll do so for the red, white and blue of his adopted homeland USA rather than the India blue of his childhood. 

File photo credit: Peter Della Penna

By Peter Della Penna (Twitter/X @PeterDellaPenna)
 
On Saturday night, Saurabh Netravalkar will be playing his first ever international match inside the hometown stadium he grew up dreaming of playing in. But in an ironic twist of fate, he’ll do it while wearing a slightly darker shade of blue than the one he first envisioned. Instead, USA’s all-time leading wicket-taker is getting ready to suit up once again for the Stars & Stripes against the defending T20 World Cup champions and tournament hosts India. 
 
“That would be definitely a different kind of nostalgia,” Netravalkar said in a recent interview during the USA squad’s build-up to opening night for the 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. Netravalkar got to live out one type of dream taking on India in New York during the last T20 World Cup in 2024 where he plucked the prized wickets of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to add to his cult hero status on the back of helping USA to their most famous ever-win against Pakistan in Texas. Now, he’ll get the chance to take on India not just in India, but at Wankhede Stadium in his hometown of Mumbai where he cultivated his early career as a teenager and even briefly played three matches for Mumbai in first-class cricket prior to migrating to the USA in 2015 initially to do a graduate degree at Cornell University in upstate New York. 
 
“2024 was very special for me,” Netravalkar said. “This moment would be a different kind of special, kind of a full circle moment because as an Under-15 kid, training at Wankhede, I’ve bowled in the nets to a lot of the greats of the game at Mumbai, dreamt of playing for India at that ground which couldn’t happen. I wasn’t good enough. And then to get that opportunity after 10 years of leaving the country, it’s a surreal moment where I wouldn’t have even expected to play the sport, let alone at an international level.”
 
At the time Netravalkar first came to study in New York, he thought that was it for cricket. But as fate would have it, he rediscovered a passion for the game and became much more involved on the west coast cricket scene after accepting a job with Oracle and moving to California’s Silicon Valley. By 2018, he had made a USA debut and was instrumental in helping the country achieve ODI status in 2019. Five years later, he became a household name in the cricket world after his T20 World Cup heroics for USA and now he’s hoping to get a chance to reprise his match-winning exploits for his adopted country against the country where he grew up and learned the game. 
 
“My local friends and apartment community friends, my family and extended family will be there to watch the game,” Netravalkar said about USA’s opening night fixture against India. “So in that sense it’s very special and nostalgic. But in terms of execution of my plans or in the game, I won’t think about all that. They’re just uncontrollable. I’m just going to go out and execute my skills and accept the result. Whatever the result is, I can only give my 100% for the team, just trying to prep and leave no stone unturned. For this whole month, we’ve been working hard now. We’ll just put our best foot forward and see what happens.”
 
After USA advanced to the Super Eights in 2024, the surprise factor has vanished and they won’t be sneaking up on anyone in this year’s event. USA has been paired up with India and Pakistan once more in Group A while Canada and Ireland have been swapped out for Netherlands and Namibia to complete the group. Netravalkar says his preparation for this tournament has been much different compared to 2024. Part of it is due to the different conditions teams will be facing in India and Sri Lanka.
 
“I think preparation wise there are a few things to consider,” Netravalkar said. “Obviously the conditions will be very different. USA, New York especially, the conditions were very suited to fast bowling. Dallas was also a sporting pitch where you could still swing the ball if you bowled good areas. There was something in it for the bowlers. Here, we might expect it to be a lot more batter friendly. So in that sense, it’ll be personally as a bowler much more of a challenge and less room for error. Top attacking batters get opportunity on a flat track so they’ll also be looking to come aggressive. 
 
“So it’s important to be a little thick-skinned in T20, where some of the good balls might also get hit for four or six. But it’s about minimizing that damage. For example, you going for a 10-run over would be still better than spoiling that over and making it a 20-run over because that could be a win or loss difference, those 5 or 10 runs. So it’s about being more smarter than trying to ace everything. I think the approach in terms of how we approach the game as a bowler will change where each ball is an impact rather than each over. So each ball you get to come back and try to save the day for your team.”
 
Netravalkar also believes that the profile of USA’s players has been raised through their performances on the World Cup stage as well as in T20 franchise tournaments. Netravalkar himself was a part of the Trinbago Knight Riders championship squad in the 2025 Caribbean Premier League while other teammates like Andries Gous have had success playing in championship squads at tournaments like the ILT20 in the UAE. The former USA captain believes that makes it less difficult for opponents to scout and plan against USA rather than being ambushed in the way that Pakistan was two years ago in Texas. 
 
“Obviously we won’t be unknown figures now,” Netravalkar said. “So they also will do homework on our patterns, how we bowl, the skills we execute. So it will be important to mentally also study their batters, their patterns, what new tricks can we actually introduce in the World Cup. Can we do something different? 
 
“So we’ve been having those discussions on a tactical point of view with our video analyst and coach and captain. We’ll try to do the best with the skills that we have but ultimately on the field it is what it is. You just have to go and execute. If it’s our day, it’s our day. If it’s not, it’s not. You just accept it. We give our best. We’ll see how we go.”