Jafer has a long stroke and throws with a flatter trajectory, and his jump spins are good.
England’s squad for the tour of the West Indies has a new name: Jafer Chohan, the Yorkshire player. The 22-year-old is the first player to be called up at the national level by the South Asian Cricket Academy (SACA), founded in 2021 by Dr Tom Brown with former England bowler Kabir Ali to help for British South Asian players to be recognised.
When he was released by Middlesex in 2021, Jafer was playing for Berkshire and his coach, Tom Lambert, recommended him to Tom Brown, who studied a low number of South Asian cricketers in professional cricket. Jafer then started playing for SACA and soon achieved significant promotion.
He joined Yorkshire in 2022 and slowly became a permanent member of the T20 team. He bowled brilliantly in Vitality Blast 2024, taking 17 wickets at an average of 15.52, including a five-wicket haul against Durham.
He recently signed a three-year contract with Yorkshire, becoming one of ten players who SACA helped find a professional contract with a county and will remain with them until the summer of 2027. He was also signed by the Guyana Amazon Warriors in the Caribbean Premier League, but Yorkshire did not allow him to play because he was in line to make his First Class debut.
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Jafer was with Southern Brave in The Hundred but did not get a chance to feature, even after an excellent Vitality Blast, and was also selected for the 2024/25 Big Bash League by Sydney Sixers. He dismissed Joe Root and Ben Duckett in the nets at Loughborough ahead of England’s tour of Pakistan, and Root recommended him to the Yorkshire club.
Adil Rashid, England’s leading player, has been working extensively with him in Yorkshire and at his own cricket center in Bradford. He revealed that his brother, Amar, also worked with Jafer at his cricket centre.
“It (The Adil Rashid Academy) is for people who are not recognized, but you see that the talent is there. Jafer has worked with my brother and me and has made great progress. It was a great moment for the academy and for the center to know that people had come forward and achieved it,” said Rashid.
Jafer has a long stroke and throws with a flatter trajectory, and his jump spins are good. Additionally, he also has a good slider and his arm speed is fast, which helps him remain unpredictable and difficult to read.
Jafer is confident in his abilities and feels “it’s different to what England has had before.”
“Being selected seems like an absolute dream. It’s what I’ve worked for all my life. My skills are unique and a little different than what England had before. I feel very confident in my game and I like to express myself as a person with the way I bowl, and I think that benefits me. Being in this new environment will be a very good opportunity to thrive.”
He is yet to make his debut in any other format except T20. But lately England has focused on selecting players with unique attributes, such as giving opportunities to Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir on the tour of India.
Jafer’s selection is based on his unique skills, and the team sees him as one of the potential future players with Rehan Ahmed. Despite having only 23 T20s to his name, his selection shows that he has something special and can be Adil Rashid’s successor.
Limited edition England squad for West Indies tour: Jos Buttler (captain), Jofra Archer, Jacob Bethell, Jafer Chohan, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Livingstone, Saqib Mahmood, Dan Mousley, Jamie Overton, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Reece Topley, John Turner
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