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Story of Lokesh Kumar: From Swiggy Delivery Executive To Netherlands' Net Bowler

image-lmt8yvjlLokesh Kumar gets inducted into Netherlands training camp (Twitter)

World Cup 2023’s surprise entrant Netherlands is one of the first sides to have touched base in India for the forthcoming cricketing carnival. Upon their arrival, the team management put out an advertisement for quality net bowlers who can assist them in their preparations.

As one can expect in a cricket-crazy nation like India, Netherlands team were overwhelmed by responses from across the country. After assessing over 10,000 applicants who had uploaded their videos on a mobile app, the Dutch management concluded their hunt by handpicking four bowling prodigies.


One of the individuals chosen by the Dutch management for their task was a 29-year-old Lokesh Kumar, a Swiggy food delivery executive hailing from Chennai, who harbors a dream of playing in the IPL.


A deep dive into the life of Lokesh Kumar

Hailing from Chennai, Lokesh Kumar works as a food delivery executive for Swiggy during his day time, all while pursuing his dreams of landing an IPL contract. With cricket being his primary passion and his delivery job being his livelihood, Kumar has been seamlessly balancing his cricketing pursuits and work life since landing himself at Swiggy in 2018.

He barely misses TNCA league matches, which usually occur on weekends, thus ensuring cricket remains his priority after every week’s worth of job.

Kumar started out as a pacer during his early days in the game, but gradually transformed himself into a mystery spinner later on.

The left-arm-chinaman bowler played in the fifth division for four years, and is currently settled with a fourth division team Indian Oil RO (S&RC).

Lokesh Kumar’s meteoric rise from a delivery executive to a fourth division player to a net bowler for a World Cup team serves as a reminder of such unsung bowling assistants for top-tier cricketers in the world. Scores of net bowlers in India, such as Kumar, often hail from such diverse backgrounds who have to juggle their passion with responsibility.

The 29-year-old Tamil Nadu-based aspiring cricketer is expected to assist some of the top Netherlands batters over the coming weeks in their World Cup 2023 preparations.

They will commence their tournament campaign with a match against Pakistan on October 6 in Hyderabad.