Former Mumbai Ranji Trophy-winning team’s performance analyst Saurabh Walkar joins the New Zealand team for ODI World Cup 2023.
Saurabh Walkar was Roped in by NZ for World Cup 2023
New Zealand Cricket will be assisted by the former Mumbai Ranji Teams performance analyst Saurabh Walkar for the upcoming ODI World Cup 2023 which is scheduled to begin on October 5.
The 38-year-old had a crucial role in Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy-winning team. He had spent 8 years with the Mumbai team. Walkar joined Rajasthan Royals in IPL and also assisted Afghanistan team during T20I World Cup.
Recently he worked with Gujarat Giants in the Women’s Premier League, Lucknow Super Giants in IPL.
He is currently assisting Jos Buttler-led Manchester Originals in the Hundred. New Zealand will begin their ODI World Cup journey in 2023, against defending champions England in Ahmedabad on October 5.
Walkar will start his new journey with the New Zealand team as the first match will be played against England in a T20I series at Chester-le-Street on August 30.
He expressed his excitement after joining the New Zealand team and said his role will be to give an opinion on the Indian pitches for the upcoming big event and help the New Zealand team accordingly.
“Indian pitches will play an important role, so I will be focusing on that aspect. These wickets will play a major role while formulating strategies. It’s a big opportunity for me to be a part of the NZ team,” Walkar told mid-day from Cardiff on Wednesday.
Walkar said that his preparation for the World Cup 2023 tournament has been online and admitted that the New Zealand management will be expecting some input from him regarding Indian players as he has worked with them during his stint with the Mumbai Ranji team.
“I have started my preparation on all teams, especially India. They [NZ] are expecting special inputs about Indian players from me. I had worked with Rohit [Sharma], Surya [Yadav], Shardul [Thakur], and other players during my stint with the Mumbai senior team.
I will also prepare myself for the biggest tournament and assist NZ head coach, Gary Stead,” Walkar remarked. He further gave credit to coaches like Chandrakant Pandit and Omkar Salvi for guiding him.
“I have worked with all the players including Sachin Tendulkar and different coaches in different teams. But the disciplined approach which I learned from Chandu sir and Omkar Salvi on specific plans and bowling strategy for particular batsmen are helping me immensely,” he added.
With an engineering background, Walkar switched to a sports career in 2006 and undertook a one-year course in sports biomechanics in Chennai. He was making his first sports career with Mumbai as an intern, assisting performance analyst Venkatesh Gurumurthy in 2007.
After working with the Mumbai team for 8 years, Walkar was clear about his job. He’s also worked with Rajasthan Royals and the Afghanistan team during the 2021 World Cup. He now has considerable experience as a performance analyst.
