Star CSK player ditches franchise for championship deal in 2025

The Chennai Super Kings’ captain and the Indian batter, Ruturaj Gaikwad, has pulled out of his county deal with the Yorkshire side due to a ‘personal issue at home.’ The right-handed batter was due to make his debut in the red-ball first-class game in England for the franchise at North Marine Road against Surrey on July 22 and would remain with them until the end of the season.

The 28-year-old batter has smashed 2632 runs in the red-ball domestic format in 65 innings at an average of 41.77 and a strike rate of around 60, thanks to seven centuries and 14 half-centuries at the best score of 195 runs. It could have been a perfect practice for the opener against the swinging red ball in tough conditions of England.

The Maharashtra batter smashed two half-centuries in the first five encounters of the IPL 2025 for the Super Kings. He started with a fine 53 runs against the Mumbai Indians at home, the MA Chidambaram Stadium, besides nailing 63 runs against the Rajasthan Royals in Guwahati. Later, he was ruled out of the competition with a broken hand.

Star CSK player denies Yorkshire for the Championship deal in 2025

The head coach of the Yorkshire side, Anthony McGrath, has revealed the development and narrated that the club didn’t have any news or update beyond that. ‘Unfortunately, Gaikwad's not coming now for personal reasons. We're not going to have him for Scarborough or the rest of the season. So that's disappointing.’ McGrath expressed during the press release.

The head coach has also addressed that Yorkshire would be trying to find a suitable replacement for Gaikwad in the passage of play. They, however, will have just three days before the game. He addressed that Johny Bairstow’s availability for Scarborough isn’t known, given that his partner is due to give birth at any time. Dom Bess missed the T20 Blast game against Leicestershire on July 18 due to a niggle.

‘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 to get a possible replacement, but time pressure is the issue. I can't give you anything more than that at the moment.’ The Yorkshire head coach added.