Cheema made his international debut at the age of 30 in the Scotia Bank ODI series in
King City,
Ontario in August 2008. Cheema came to notice with a 61-ball 89 against West Indies in his second ODI and in the same match also took 3 for 31 in 10 overs which was over shadowed by
West Indies cricket team's 303 for 4 which includes century by
Xavier Marshall. He followed that up with 61 off 45 balls against the same opposition two days later. He narrowly misses out in a maiden ODI hundred against
Netherlands cricket team in July 2009. Later that month Cheema was one of six players awarded central contracts as
Cricket Canada sought to professionalise its structures. His in ODI is 114.94 which is the top ten list of the highest number of strike rate. In the Canada T20 tournament, in October 2008, he hit ten sixes, more than either
Sanath Jayasuriya or
Shahid Afridi and was his team's top run-getter, averaging over 60 in the series. He scored 68 off 43 balls against Sri Lanka in his third game. Cheema was one of the four, Canadian Cricketer who face visa problem before the World Cup. Cheema hit a fluent 93 from 70 balls from No. 7 at
Fatullah in a warm cup game against England. In September 2018, he was named in Canada's squad for the
2018–19 ICC World Twenty20 Americas Qualifier tournament. In August 2019, he was named in Canada's squad for the
Regional Finals of the
2018–19 ICC T20 World Cup Americas Qualifier tournament. In October 2019, he was named in Canada's squad for the
2019 ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier tournament in the United Arab Emirates. ==Captaincy career==