Ex-India pacer, who won World Cup with Virat Kohli and earned his maiden cap from MS Dhoni, off to SBI after retirement

It's no secret that cricketers have often ensured their safety through back-up jobs. After all, not every up-and-coming talent, or even the established ones, can land a lucrative IPL contract or enjoy a lengthy and successful India career. As a matter of fact, even some of Indian cricket's biggest stars, such as MS Dhoni, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harbhajan Singh and Sachin Tendulkar, have held government posts outside of cricket. It's a way to safeguard your future, especially after a cricketer is done playing. MS Dhoni handing Siddharth Kaul his India cap.(BCCI)

Siddharth Kaul is also part of this list. The veteran Punjab pacer recently announced retirement and has returned to the State Bank of India in Chandigarh's Sector 17 branch. Kaul has been part of SBI since 2017 – before his Team India debut – and even earned a promotion in 2020. However, now that his cricket career isn't as active as before, Kaul has more time to give to his office.

While Kaul has been a workhorse for Punjab in India's domestic circuit, with 297 wickets from 88 First-Class matches in a career spanning 17 years, Kaul was in fine form during as recent as the 2023-24 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, emerging as the highest wicket-taker for Punjab with 16 scalps as the team won its maiden title. He was equally valuable in List-A and T20 cricket, picking up 199 and 182 wickets from 188 and 145 matches, respectively.

How Siddharth Kaul's career panned out

While Kaul, 34, is open to playing cricket overseas, claiming he has 2-3 years of cricket left in him, the former India pacer is content with what he has achieved.

Kaul shot to the limelight 16 years ago when he was part of Virat Kohli's Under-19 World Cup winning team in 2008 Malaysia and took 10 wickets. However, he would have to wait another 10 years to break into the national team. But when he did, it was a moment to savour for Kaul as he earned his India cap from MS Dhoni. Debuting against Ireland in a T20I at Malahide, Dublin, Kaul's career, though, was short-lived as he went on to play not more than three T20Is and as many ODIs for India between July 2018 and February 2019. Kaul's real test was the series against England, where he went wicketless in two ODIs.

That Kaul broke into the national team resulted from the consistent years he had put in for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL - he grabbed 16 wickets in 2017 and bettered it with 21 the following year. Having also represented Delhi Capitals, Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bengaluru – along with SRH – Kaul grabbed 58 wickets from 51 IPL matches with a best of 4/29 against Rising Pune Supergiants in 2017, including wickets of Steve Smith and Dhoni. As part of SBI, he has also represented their cricket team.

Having said that, Kaul isn't entirely giving up on cricket. "I feel I still have 3-4 years of cricket left in me, but I wanted to go out on a high, when I was at peak fitness and performing well rather than being asked to go due to fitness or non-performance at some other point," he told ESPNcricinfo.

"If you see my graph over the past 9-10 years, I've been performing really well across formats. So I felt this was a good time to go. Hopefully going forward, whatever opportunities arise, like in county cricket [he represented Northamptonshire in three Division 2 Championship games this summer, picking up 13 wickets at 29.84], or Legends League, MLC etc, I'd like to explore them if I get the chance."

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