The Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) has appointed former Indian cricketer Wasim Jaffer as the head coach of the senior men’s team for the upcoming domestic season. Wasim Jaffer has been unanimously chosen in place of former Australian fast bowler Shaun Tait as the head coach of the Punjab state team.
There were rumours that Wasim Jaffer might replace Trevor Bayliss as the head coach of the Punjab Kings (PBKS) for the 2025 IPL season. Jaffer worked as the team’s batting coach from 2019 to 2021 and later served as a batting consultant. He resigned from his post ahead of the IPL 2024 auction.
The 46-year-old also worked as the head coach of the Uttarakhand and Odisha state cricket teams. Jaffer faced allegations of selection bias by players during his time at Uttarakhand. The former Indian opening batsman eventually resigned from the post mid-season. He later denied the allegations against him.
Wasim Jaffer will motivate the team to achieve success – Amarjeet Singh Mehta
PCA President Amarjeet Singh Mehta confirmed the appointment of Wasim Jaffer as the head coach of the Punjab senior men’s team. Amarjeet said Jaffer’s experience and knowledge would inspire the team to success. He added that the PCA did not want to miss the opportunity to work with him.
“Our main aim is to win the Ranji Trophy and also the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, which is why we unanimously decided to appoint him as the head coach. With his experience and knowledge, we are confident that Jaffer will motivate the team to achieve success. He is one of the best long-format players in the country and we did not want to miss the opportunity to have him on board,” Amarjeet Singh Mehta told Sportstar.
The PCA president highlighted that Punjab has performed well in white-ball cricket recently and now wants to focus on achieving consistency in red-ball cricket.
“We have done reasonably well in white-ball cricket of late but we want to be consistent in red-ball cricket and that’s why we thought of looking at Jaffer,” Mehta said.
Last season, Punjab won the Vijay Hazare Trophy and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy under the leadership of former Indian cricketer Aavishkar Salvi. Salvi has moved to the National Cricket Academy and captain Mandeep Singh will join Tripura. Salvi is currently working as a bowling coach for the Indian women’s cricket team.
In the 2022–23 season, Punjab reached the quarter-finals of the Ranji Trophy but lost to Saurashtra and failed to qualify for the playoffs in the last edition.
Wasim Jaffer is the leading run-scorer in the history of the Ranji Trophy. He scored 12,038 runs in 238 innings in the tournament during his career. The former right-handed batsman led the Mumbai state team to two Ranji titles in 2008-09 and 2009-10. He also captained West Zone to a Duleep Trophy victory in early 2010.
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