One of the brightest talents in Indian cricket, Yashasvi Jaiswal, has decided to take up a major change in his career. Jaiswal, who has played for Mumbai state team since his under-19 days, has reportedly decided to quit the team and join Goa from the next season onwards. Jaiswal is said to have written an email to the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) seeking a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to change his cricket state team. Arjun Tendulkar and Siddhesh Lad are some of the other cricketers from Mumbai who changed their team to Goa in the recent past.
Jaiswal played for Mumbai recently in the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy campaign after returning from an underwhelming Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has made participation in domestic red-ball cricket mandatory for Team India's stars, prompting the likes of Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, etc. to return to their respective state teams.
But, from the next season, Jaiswal will be wearing the Goa jersey in domestic cricket.
"He has sought an NOC from us and has cited that the reason for his move to Goa as personal," a source in the MCA told the Indian Express.
“He wants to play for us and we welcome him. He will be playing for us from the next season,” Goa Cricket Association's secretary Shamba Desai told PTI.
Jaiswal could well captain Goa when he is not on national duty.
“Yes, that can happen,” he replied when asked if Jaiswal could be a captaincy candidate for the state.
“He plays for the Indian cricket team so he can be the captain and we will work in the direction to appoint him. Regarding his availability (for the domestic competitions), we are yet to speak,” he added.
Jaiswal has had a difficult start to the ongoing IPL 2025 campaign for the Rajasthan Royals. The opening batter has only scored 34 runs in three matches as the franchise has struggled to draw favourable results.
In three matches, RR's most explosive and promising batter has made just runs at an average of 11.33, with a strike rate of 106.25 and best score of 29. So far, he has delivered scores of 1, 29 and 4.
Jaiswal has been facing a lot of problems during the powerplay since the IPL 2024, particularly the first three overs. Since the last IPL, he has been dismissed eight out of 18 times within the first three overs of an innings. This is a 44 per cent dismissal rate. It is up from the 29 per cent dismissal rate across seasons 2022 and 2023, with the batter smashing 625 runs in the latter season.
Also, the 2024 season was an underwhelming for Jaiswal, as he did score 435 runs at an average of 31.07 and a strike rate of almost 156, but he could score just one century and fifty in the tournament.
It is interesting to note that his attacking shot percentage has gone down to 70 per cent over last two seasons as compared to previous two seasons.
With ANI Inputs