India batter Ruturaj Gaikwad has backed out of a County Championship deal that he had signed up for with Yorkshire last month. The Chennai Super Kings captain was due to appear for his debut on Tuesday, but has now opted out of the deal due to personal reasons.
“Unfortunately Gaikwad’s not coming now for personal reasons,” said Yorkshire head coach Anthony McGrath. “We’re not going to have him for Scarborough or for the rest of the season. So that’s disappointing.
“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,” Mcgrath added.
During the announcement of his signing in June, Gaikwad had said: “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 batter had been out of action since April 8 after suffering a fractured elbow while leading Chennai Super Kings in the IPL 2025 season. Recovering from the injury, Gaikwad was named in the India A squad for the England tour. However, he was benched for both matches against the England Lions.
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Despite his impressive white-ball aggregates, Gaikwad has not had the best of runs in First-Class cricket, averaging 41.77 for 2632 runs in 38 matches. Gaikwad had a torrid run during the India A tour to Australia last year, scoring only 20 runs in four outings.
In the 2024-25 domestic season in India, Gaikwad tallied 571 runs in 12 innings with a solitary century.
