‘Rohit Sharma asked Yashasvi Jaiswal to stay on in Mumbai’ | Cricket News

MUMBAI: It was because of an advice to this effect by India’s ODI captain Rohit Sharma that India’s opener Yashasvi Jaiswal reversed his decision to play for Goa instead of Mumbai in the upcoming domestic season. “Rohit asked Yashasvi to stay on in Mumbai at this stage of his career. He explained to Yashasvi that there was a lot of pride and prestige in playing for a team like Mumbai, which has won the Ranji Trophy a record 42 times. Rohit also told Yashasvi that he must not forget that it was because of Mumbai cricket he got a platform and went on to play for India, and he must be grateful to the city for that. It was here in Mumbai that he started playing cricket on the maidans, and then was picked for all the age group teams of Mumbai,” Mumbai Cricket Association president Ajinkya Naik told TOI.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!“After discussing this with Rohit and a few other stalwarts who represented India and Mumbai, Jaiswal sent an email to us requesting us to withdraw his No-Objection Certificate application to shift to Goa. We approved his request,” Naik added.

Jaiswal had written an email in May to the MCA to withdraw his NOC and said he is available to represent Mumbai for the next domestic season, thus taking a U-turn after initially deciding to play for Goa. In April, Jaiswal had taken the MCA and everyone by surprise when he sought an NOC to move to Goa, citing personal reasons for the intended shift. Goa had qualified for the knock-out stage of the Ranji Trophy.

Jaiswal had formed an opening partnership with Rohit since making his debut in Test cricket nearly two years ago, and shares a healthy relationship with the former India captain off the field. Recently, Rohit attended play on Day Three in the fifth and final Test at The Oval, when Jaiswal scored a century. Later, the 23-year-old left-hander revealed his chat with Rohit.“I saw Rohit bhai and said hi. He gave me the message to keep playing,” Jaiswal told reporters after the day’s play.Jaiswal acknowledged that he had already spent valuable time learning from India’s seasoned greats like Rohit and Virat Kohli.“I think that’s how you need to plan your game. I need to plan my game, my innings, where my shots are and where I’m going to score runs. So, of course, I keep getting all these messages and playing with the seniors as long as I have played with Rohit Bhai, Virat Bhai. So, playing with them as well helped me a lot grow as a person and seeing them, what they have done in Test cricket, how they have prepared themselves,” he said.Jaiswal had moved from Suriyawan in Uttar Pradesh’s Bhadohi to Mumbai at the age of 11 to pursue cricket. He played for the India Under-19 team in the U-19 World Cup, smashed a double century in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, got a contract with the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL and eventually went on to play for India.The dashing left-hander scored 411 runs@41.10, including two centuries (in the first and last innings of the series) and two half-centuries in five Tests in the recently-concluded Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy in England, which finished at 2-2.With India not scheduled to play any international cricket in August, Jaiswal has decided to stay back in the UK for a break. He will be returning to action in the Duleep Trophy at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru from Aug 28.Mumbai team camp in NagpurMeanwhile, a 28-member Mumbai senior team squad left for Nagpur on Sunday for a week-long pre-season camp. “The players will indulge in bonding sessions and play intra-squad matches there,” a source said. The MCA had arranged for a camp at its facility in BKC, but the constant rain at this time of the year in the city makes it difficult for the players to practice. Following the camp in Nagpur, the selectors will pick a squad for the Buchi Babu Trophy in Tamil Nadu, which will begin from Aug 20.