Pakistan opener Imam-ul-Haq has been signed by County Championship side Yorkshire as a replacement for India’s Ruturaj Gaikwad for the remainder of the season, the club announced on Monday.
The development follows after Gaikwad backed out of the County deal that he had signed up for with the club 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.”
Imam has previously represented Somerset in the County Championship in 2022. He will join the Yorkshire squad ahead of its clash with Surrey at Scarborough.
“We’re delighted that Imam has joined us and that he will be available immediately,” Gavin Hamilton, Yorkshire’s general manager of cricket, said on Monday. “Whilst we were naturally disappointed that Ruturaj couldn’t join up with the squad, in Imam, we have an exceptional player of proven international quality.
Earlier, Yorkshire went into panic mode after Gaikwad’s last-minute decision.
“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 had said on Saturday.
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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.
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.
