Mumbai: In a stunning, massive development, India’s Test opener Yashasvi Jaiswal has decided to quit Mumbai and move to Goa. The 23-year-old will captain Goa in the 2025-26 season.
On Tuesday, Jaiswal wrote an email to the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) seeking a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to change his cricket state team from Mumbai to Goa from the next season onwards. The MCA subsequently granted him the NOC.
“He wrote an e-mail to us, seeking an NOC from the MCA to represent Goa next season. We’ve accepted his request,” Abhay Hadap MCA secretary told TOI.
Poll
Do you think Yashasvi Jaiswal made the right decision by moving to Goa?
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!
In his email to the MCA seeking transfer to Goa from Mumbai, Jaiswal has communicated, “I have had the privilege of representing Mumbai in domestic cricket and have immensely benefited from the opportunities provided by the association. However, after careful consideration of my career aspirations and personal circumstances, I have decided to seek a transfer to Goa to continue my domestic cricket journey. I assure you that this decision is made in good faith and with due respect to the association that has supported my development. I am willing to comply with all necessary formalities as per the BCCI’s player transfer regulations and will ensure a smooth transition.”
“Thank you for your support and guidance throughout my time with Mumbai. I sincerely appreciate all the opportunities given to me and hope to maintain a positive relationship with the association in the future.”
Also See: IPL Live Score, RCB vs GT
Meanwhile, BCCI jt secretary Rohan Desai, who was the secretary of the Goa Cricket Association till recently, told this paper, “It’s a great development for Goan cricket. Goa’s cricketers, especially the youngsters, will get to learn a lot from Jaiswal , who is a part of India’s Test team. It’s a blessing in disguise that a player of his stature will be a part of Goa’s dressing room. It’s a good decision by the GCA management, especially Shambha Desai, the secretary of the GCA to include Yashasvi in the squad. I’m looking forward to an exciting season for Goa.”
Jaiswal made his first-class debut for Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium in Jan 2019 against Chhattisgarh in a Ranji Trophy match, and has scored a majority of his 3712 first-class runs, including 12 hundreds and 12 fifties, in 36 matches for Mumbai. It was his sizzling performances for Mumbai that brought the dashing left-hander into the national reckoning. In Oct 2019, Jaiswal became the youngest man to hit a one-day double century, when, at the age of just 17, he smashed 203 off 154 balls against Jharkhand in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. In June 2022, the left-hander stroked twin hundreds (100 & 181) against Uttar Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy, and didn’t look back.
In recent years, Mumbai players like Arjun Tendulkar, Siddhesh Lad and Eknath Kerkar have played for Goa.
After the BCCI’s directive to the players to turn out for their state teams in domestic cricket, Jaiswal played in a Ranji Trophy match for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy in the 2024-25 season, scoring 4 & 26 in the five-wicket defeat to Jammu & Kashmir at the MCA ground in BKC in Mumbai in Jan this year. Left out of India’s Champions Trophy squad but included in the list of non-travelling substitutes, the left-hander was drafted into the Mumbai Ranji squad ahead of their semifinal clash with Vidarbha in Nagpur on February 17. However, he had to pull out of the match just a day before the game due to pain in his ankle.
Even though he belongs to the Bhadohi village in Uttar Pradesh, Jaiswal has a deep emotional connection with Mumbai, where he has played all his cricket till now in life. As a kid, he used to sleep in the Muslim United SC tent at the Azad Maidan and sometimes sell panipuris in the evening to make a living, before his childhood coach/mentor Jwala Singh took him to his home in Santa Cruz. In 2015, former India skipper Dilip Vengsarkar took Jaiswal to the UK for an exposure tour with his academy team. Jaiswal first attracted attention by making huge scores for the Rizvi Springfield School in the Harris Shield (inter-school competition for Under-16), and then did well for the Mumbai Under-16, Under-19 and Under-23 teams, before being picked for the Mumbai senior team.
Jaiswal has currently been struggling for form while playing for the Rajasthan Royals in IPL-2025, where he has managed to score only 34 runs in three matches@11.33, with a strike rate of 106.25. The youngster was one of the standout performers for India in the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where he scored 391 runs in five Tests@43.44, with one century and two half-centuries.
Get the latest IPL 2025 updates on Times of India, including match schedules, team squads, points table and IPL live score for CSK, MI, RCB, KKR, SRH, LSG, DC, GT, PBKS, and RR. Don’t miss the list of players in the race for IPL Orange Cap and IPL Purple cap.
