India-born Jaskaran Singh's journey to play cricket for Canada: From Punjab to Deccan Chargers to World Cup on Indian soil

Jaskaran Singh Buttar won the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2009 with the Deccan Chargers. A promising fast bowler, Jaskaran was rising through the ranks quickly in Indian domestic cricket.

He made his debut for Punjab in 2009 against Haryana.  Jaskaran picked up three wickets on his debut for his home team against Haryana. Although he played only two matches in IPL 2009, the next season, Jaskaran played six games and took six wickets.

However, soon injuries derailed his career and he moved to Canada. It seemed his career was over but fate had other ideas.

Jaskaran's move to Canada

Jaskaran's family had Canadian citizenship but he chose to make his career in India hoping to play for the national team one day. As injuries made it harder for him to continue in India, he also moved to Canada. "I went there for my child's citizenship, to be honest," he told Reuters in a recent interview.

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Jaskaran described moving to Canada as a "compromise with destiny". The switch to Canada was almost an end of Jaskaran's cricketing ambitions but his talent helped him keep his dream alive.

Canada's short summer allows only little cricket in the country which is mostly played by immigrants. Jaskaran took up a coaching role in Toronto but his skills with the ball had kept Cricket Canada interested in him. The board started monitoring the Punjab-born pacer and soon he would make his international debut, not for India, but for Canada.

Pubudu Dassanayake, Canada's coach at that time, asked Jaskaran "how long I had left to fulfil my residency obligations before I would be eligible ​to play for Canada?"

Return to India

In 2025, he was eligible to play for Canada and when he got a chance to play, he straightaway impressed with three wickets against Bermuda on his international debut. Months later, he also represented Canada in ODIs.

He soon became a regular in the Canadian side and a few months later, the big opportunity came.

Canada were among the 20 teams that qualified for the T20 World Cup. Destiny brought Jaskaran back to India, only this time he was representing Canada. He called this moment "ironic".

"At some point... there was a thought that okay, you worked hard, but your ​dream of playing and winning the World Cup for India is shattered," he said.

"I went to Canada, not knowing what would happen. And ​then I'm given an opportunity of playing in a World Cup, and that World Cup happens to be in India, ⁠my home country... I could not ever imagine this in my wildest dreams."

Canada could not get a win in the four group games that they played in the tournament but Jaskaran had a decent finish to the event as he took three wickets against a strong Afghanistan batting line-up.