Ajay Jadeja expresses shock at knowing PCB selector Hassan Cheema’s credentials

Jadeja was shocked to learn that Cheema never played a first-class cricket match.

Criticism is in abundance for the Pakistan Cricket Team after their disappointing group-stage exit in the 2025 Champions Trophy, which implies that they have failed to reach the knockout stage in all three ICC ODI tournaments. This comes after the shocking first-round exit in the 2024 T20 World Cup. The criticism focused on selectors picking a poor combination of players for the Champions Trophy. This time, former Indian cricketer Ajay Jadeja commented on the same.

Ajay Jadeja was shocked that Hassan Cheema never played a first-class cricket match.

Hassan Cheema is one of the members of the five-person committee for the Pakistan men’s team, but he has never played a first-class cricket match. After facing a home Test defeat last October against England, PCB structured the selection committee, adding the likes of Aleem Dar, Aaqib Javed, and Azhar Ali to the panel, which earlier comprised Asad Shafiq and Hassan Cheema. Jadeja was shocked to know about Cheema during an interaction on Sports Central with Wasim Akram. Jadeja asked, “Are you telling me a Pakistan selector has not played First-Class cricket?” He reacted after Akram said that he learnt that one can only apply as a national selector for the BCCI if the candidate has played a minimum number of First-Class matches. He joked, “I’m already ready.”

Wasim Akram lashed out at PCB.

Wasim Akram lashed out at the Pakistan Cricket Board for appointing a statistician as a selector. Hassan Cheema was added to the committee as an analyst for the unversed. Initially, he served eight years as a Strategy Manager at the PSL franchise in Islamabad United before being recruited by the PCB in 2023. He was eventually elevated to the role of a selector in October 2024. Akram said, “Stat ka banda kyun chaiye aapko (Why do you need a statistician)?”

Adding to Akram’s remark, Ajay Jadeja said, “If you are selecting players on stats, you are not selecting, but rejecting, because whatever you are picking is not based on stats. A selector means that he sees something in a player. Look at these two people sitting here (Akram and Waqar Younis), they may not have had the best stats when they started, but it’s about where you finish. You have to see what you are going to work with.”