Ruturaj Gaikwad backs out of Yorkshire stint over personal reasons

India's opener Ruturaj Gaikwad has withdrawn from the last round of County Championship matches for "personal reasons" and cancelled his overseas contract with Yorkshire.

Yorkshire announced earlier this month that they have signed the captain of the Chennai Super Kings till the end of the current campaign. He will remain with the White Rose till the end of the season and is also eligible to be selected in the Metro Bank One Day Cup.

But for personal reasons, the right-handed batter has taken a plane home. Just a few days before Yorkshire's County Championship match against Surrey, which is scheduled to start on Tuesday, July 22, at the North Marine Road Ground in Scarborough, head coach Anthony McGrath revealed this information.

“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,” Yorkshire head coach Anthony McGrath said.

 “I can’t tell you anything about the reasons why, but we hope that everything is okay. We’ve literally just found out,” he added.

"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."

Yorkshire is actively looking for a successor as they presently sit in eighth place in the Championship rankings. 

Gaikwad hasn't played since his elbow injury kept him out of the IPL 2025. Ayush Mhatre took his place at Chennai Super Kings, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni rejoined the squad as captain. He was picked for the India A team for the four-day matches in England after his recuperation. However, he was not given the opportunity to participate.

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