Follow UsIt is not often that young people are ready to take a break in their career to take care of their ageing parents. But Jalaj Saxena, one of the most successful domestic cricket all-rounders, has shown the way.
Jalaj has taken a break from cricket and won’t be available for his team Kerala for the Ranji Trophy 2025-26. The reason for his break is that he wants to spend time with his ageing parents.
The Madhya Pradesh-born shifted his cricketing base to Kerala in 2016 and has since played a pivotal role, taking the team to their first ever Ranji Trophy final in the 2024-25 season.
Since joining Kerala, Jalaj has taken 269 wickets and scored 2215 runs in 59 First-Class matches.
Vinod S Kumar, Secretary of the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA), confirmed the news on August 27 (Wednesday). But he also cleared the air on Jalaj seeking a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from KCA like his fellow spinner Aditya Sarwate.
“Jalaj said he wanted to take a break from cricket and won’t be available for the Ranji Trophy this season. He told us that he didn’t want to travel and wanted to be close to his aged parents,” the KCA Secretary was quoted as saying by Sportstar.
"We don’t know if he has any plans to join other teams, as till now he hasn’t approached us for NOC,’‘ he added.
Sarwate will join Chhattisgarh for the 2025-26 season, having already obtained an NOC from KCA.