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England have made Jafer Chohan their final curveball selection for the final white-ball tour before Brendon McCullum takes over as all-format head coach.
The Yorkshire leg-spinner has emerged from left field to win a place on England’s white-ball tour of the West Indies next month. He’s only 22, but has taken the road less traveled to the top, failing to make the Middlesex run and only being given a chance in the county game because he impressed Joe Root while playing in the nets.
He became Adil Rashid’s protégé at his indoor school in Bradford and, significantly, he was the first South Asian Cricket Academy (SACA) graduate to be called up by England.
Chohan is yet to play in any format at the professional level other than T20 and was overlooked by all eight teams in the Hundred this summer. But in 10 Vitality Blast matches this season, his second with Yorkshire, Chohan has taken 17 wickets at an average of 15.5 and an outstanding strike rate of 11.9 – one wicket every two overs. It earned him franchise recognition, with the Sydney Sixers selecting him for this year’s Big Bash League, while Yorkshire blocked a Caribbean Premier League deal with the Guyana Amazon Warriors last month because he was in contention for a first-class debut. This week he signed his first long-term contract with Yorkshire.
Chohan, bowling flat and with sparkling legs after a very long and fast run, reckons he is “a bit different to what England have had before” and takes his place in a squad of 14 for the trip in the West Indies, which is sandwiched between Test tours to Pakistan and New Zealand, limiting the availability of all-format players.
“It’s like an absolute dream to be selected,” Chohan said. “This is what I’ve worked for my whole life.
“My skills are very unique and a bit different to those in England before. I feel very confident in my game and I like to express myself as a person with the way I play and I think that is my strength. Being in this new environment will be a very good opportunity to flourish.
How Chohan almost fell through the cracks
In 2021, Chohan had been released by Middlesex and was playing for Berkshire when their head coach, Tom Lambert, recommended him to Tom Brown, whose PhD examined why so few South Asian cricketers succeed in the game professional.
Research carried out in 2018 showed that players of South Asian origin make up 30% of recreational players in England and Wales, but only 4% of professionals. These figures had encouraged Brown to co-found – with former England bowler Kabir Ali – SACA, an intervention program aimed at preventing talented cricketers from falling through the cracks of the county system.
This was exactly what Chohan, who had studied at Harrow School on a scholarship, was likely to do. But he started appearing for the SACA, performed well and was quickly on Yorkshire’s radar – with a little help from Root.
First, Chohan appeared at a SACA showcase event at Rashid’s Academy in Bradford, impressing Yorkshire scouts, then he played England in the Loughborough nets ahead of their 2022 tour of Pakistan, dismissing both Root and Ben Duckett. Root reported to Yorkshire that he was worth a move and in January 2023 he signed on professional terms.
“This whole thing took about six months and it was easy to see why it happened so quickly,” Brown says. “Every match he played for us, he took wickets. He is an excellent defender who knows how to hit. We asked ourselves, “Why isn’t this guy already in the system”?
“He’s a truly impressive character, very much his own man. He has a bit of flair and often comes up with interesting hairstyles and facial hair. He has an Instagram page about his cooking and is very comfortable being proud of who he is.
Working with Rashid “really helped,” according to Brown. “It’s made him very crafty, he really turns his google and has a good slider.”
Chohan is one of 10 players who SACA has now helped secure a professional contract with a county, including Worcestershire’s Kashif Ali and Gloucestershire’s Zaman Akhtar, who played for the England Lions this summer.
“This is a historic moment for SACA, and this season has been a whirlwind,” Brown said. Telegraph sport. “When we started, I was a little worried that we might be seen as a box-ticking EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion) exercise. While there is an EDI element to what we do, it will hopefully prove that this is a legitimate path to the highest level.
Chohan is one of three uncapped players in the squad for three ODIs and five T20s. The others are Hampshire seamer John Turner and Warwickshire all-rounder Dan Mousley, while Jos Buttler returns as captain, having missed the series against Australia with a calf injury. England are without their all-format players such as Ben Duckett and Harry Brook due to Test commitments, but will add two more players to the squad, likely Jordan Cox and Rehan Ahmed, towards the end of the Pakistan tour .
Assistant Marcus Trescothick will once again deputize as head coach on the tour, while McCullum will take over across all formats in January when England travel to India for eight matches serving as a warm-up to the Champions Trophy.
