India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal has decided to leave Mumbai, his domestic team, news agency PTI reported on Wednesday, April 2. Yashasvi Jaiswal‘s move comes as a shock in the domestic cricket scene, given his dramatic rise in the Indian cricketing ecosystem during his time with the team.
The left-hander Yashasvi Jaiswal, who made his Test and T20I debut for India on the back of prolific performances in the Ranji Trophy and the Indian Premier League, is expected to play for Goa next season. On Wednesday, reports emerged that Yashasvi Jaiswal, one of the brightest batting talents to have emerged in recent times, has written to the Mumbai Cricket Association seeking a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to join Goa for the upcoming Indian domestic season.
Yashasvi Jaiswal the new prodigy in Indian cricket team.
Yashasvi Jaiswal was only 10 when he moved to Mumbai in pursuit of playing cricket. But the young boy had to struggle a lot to chase his dreams in the big city. Initially, when he had nowhere to go, a dairy owner provided him with a rooftop, but with a condition—the boy had to help him out at the shop. However, since Jaiswal was mostly playing cricket and couldn’t contribute much, the shopkeeper threw him out.
He was on the streets again—with a bat and a bag in his hands. He was left with no option but to move into one of the tents at Azad Maidan, a local ground in Mumbai. He lived alongside the groundsman and sold pani puri in his spare time to earn his living. “We told him to come back, but he said that he would return to the village only when he becomes a player… he was happy to stay in the tent,” says his mother.
The left-handed batter’s first step towards success was when he smashed an astonishing 319 runs and took 13 wickets in a multi-day match of Haris Shield, one of the top school-level tournaments in Mumbai. He hasn’t looked back since. He scored tones of runs at the school level and then for the Mumbai U-16 and U-19 teams. This led to his selection in the Indian U-19 team in 2018.
During his first stint with the national team, the elegant batter emerged as the highest run-getter and steered India to the title in the 2018 U-19 Asia Cup. Jaiswal’s hunger for runs was unreal. He looked unstoppable, topping the batting charts in almost every tournament. The southpaw finished as the highest scorer in the ICC U-19 World Cup 2020 as well.
By now, he had made a name for himself in domestic cricket, pilling huge runs for Mumbai in both the Ranji Trophy—the premier domestic tournament—and white ball events. On the back of these performances, he was picked by Rajasthan Royals for Rs2.4 crore in 2020 in the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction.
For someone who had lived in tents, this kind of money was crazy, but Jaiswal had come a long way in life by then. Fame and money hardly mattered to him, although he was extremely young. Jaiswal had walked through the hardest paths and all that he wanted was to play cricket at the highest level.
Yashasvi Jaiswal’s stellar India career in tests and T20Is
Young India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal has turned out to be one of the brightest prospects in world cricket with his incredible start to international cricket last year. The left-handed batter took just 9 Tests (16 innings) to complete 1000 runs in Test cricket and was the second-fastest Indian to achieve the feat after Vinod Kambli (14 innings).
The 22-year-old announced his arrival in international cricket with a century on his Test debut against West Indies, but it was the series against England that established him as the next big thing in world cricket. He smashed 712 runs in the five-match series and outshined senior pros like Rohit Sharma, Joe Root, Ben Stokes and others.
The swashbuckling opener has also impressed many with his free-flowing batting in T20Is. He has played 23 T20Is for India and scored 723 runs at an astonishing strike rate of 164.32. He is yet to make his ODI debut but still one of the contenders to make into India’s squad for the Champions Trophy next year.
Goa has thrown me a new opportunity- Yashasvi Jaiswal
Team India star Yashasvi Jaiswal has opened up on his decision to quit Mumbai and move to Goa for the next domestic season. Jaiswal wrote a letter to the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA), seeking a No Objection Certificate (NOC).
The upcoming 2025-26 domestic season will see him represent Goa. Jaiswal has played 36 first-class matches and has scored 3712 runs with 13 hundreds and 12 fifties. He made his debut for Mumbai in 2019.
Jaiswal opened up on why he decided to move to Goa despite it being a ‘tough’ call. He said that Mumbai has made him who he is and will be indebted to the MCA.
“It was a very tough decision for me. Whatever I am today is because of Mumbai. The city has made me who I am, and all my life, I will be indebted to the MCA,” he was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.
The left-hander revealed that Goa offered him a leadership role which he could not decline. He said that it was an important opportunity which he took as it came.
“Goa has thrown me a new opportunity and it has offered me a leadership role. My first goal will be to do well for India and whenever I’m not on national duty, I will be playing for Goa and try to make them go deep into the tournament. This was an (important) opportunity which came my way and I just took it,” the 23-year-old stated.
It will be a big move for the India batter at still a very young age in his career. Jaiswal has followed the likes of Arjun Tendulkar and Siddhesh Lad, who also moved to Goa.
Yashasvi Jaiswal was last seen for Mumbai in the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy season. After returning from the Border Gavaskar Trophy, he was among several other Indian players who had to participate in domestic cricket following BCCI’s strict guidelines. He played for them in the fixture against Jammu and Kashmir, opening the batting alongside Rohit Sharma. The left-hander scored 4 and 26 runs in the two innings, respectively.
He was drafted in Mumbai’s squad for the Ranji Trophy semi-final against Vidarbha but missed the game due to an ankle injury. Jaiswal was left out of India’s 2025 Champions Trophy squad and is currently playing for the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL.