India batter Ruturaj Gaikwad has withdrawn from his County Championship contract with Yorkshire Cricket Club due to personal reasons, just days before his scheduled debut on Tuesday. The Chennai Super Kings captain, who had signed the deal last month to play for the remainder of the English domestic season, informed Yorkshire of his decision to opt out, leaving the club searching for a potential replacement on short notice.Yorkshire head coach Anthony McGrath confirmed Gaikwad’s withdrawal from the agreement, stating: “Unfortunately Gaikwad’s not coming now for personal reasons. We’re not going to have him for Scarborough or for the rest of the season. So that’s disappointing.”Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!McGrath expressed uncertainty about the specific reasons behind Gaikwad’s decision, saying: “I can’t tell you anything about the reasons why, but we hope that everything’s ok. We’ve literally just found out.”“We’re working behind the scenes on what we can do. But it’s only two or three days away, so I’m not sure what we can do at the moment. We’re working to try and get a possible replacement, but time pressure is the issue. I can’t give you anything more than that at the moment.”When Gaikwad’s signing was initially announced in June, he had expressed enthusiasm about joining the historic English county club. He had stated: “I’m excited to be joining up with Yorkshire for the rest of the English domestic season. It has always been a goal of mine to experience cricket in this country and there is no bigger Club in England than Yorkshire.”
The Maharashtra-born batter has been away from competitive cricket since April 8, following an elbow fracture sustained while captaining Chennai Super Kings in the IPL 2025 season. During his recovery period, Gaikwad was selected for the India A squad touring England but did not participate in either matches against the England Lions.Gaikwad’s First-Class cricket statistics show a moderate performance record, with 2632 runs at an average of 41.77 across 38 matches. His recent performances include a challenging India A tour to Australia last year, where he managed only 20 runs in four innings. In the 2024-25 domestic cricket season in India, Gaikwad accumulated 571 runs in 12 innings, including one century.
