CSK’s split bowling coaching experiment works: Dwayne Bravo for death overs, Eric Simons for new ball
As Gujarat Titans last wicket fell, Chennai Super Kings’ bowling coach Dwayne Bravo was the first to sprint across the field and embrace Matheesha Pathirana. After Tushar Deshpande had conceded 19 runs in 17th over, Pathirana had pulled the game back in Chennai’s grasp by taking two crucial wickets and not conceding a boundary. The long hours that Bravo had spent with the team’s young death-overs specialist had worked and Super Kings’ plan to hire a specialist coach too was a hit.
Having unearthed a special talent in Pathirana, Chennai, at the start of this season, brought in Bravo as bowling coach to focus primarily on slog-overs bowling. This was done despite having Eric Simons as bowling consultant. CSK wanted their now retired star Bravo to pass the trade secrets to the rookie. With 615 T20 wickets, Bravo has been in many tough situations where his variations and the skill to second-guess the batsman’s plan have come in handy. The Super Kings are known to keep the process simple and by splitting the roles of Simons (new ball) and Bravo (death overs), they have simplified it further for their bowlers and have perhaps shown the way for other franchises.
Against Gujarat Titans, as Tushar Deshpande was sending down his most expensive over of the night with Rashid Khan taking him down, Bravo could no longer just sit in the dugout and take notes. At the end of the over, he would dash down to the opposite end of the pavilion, to have a quite word with Deshpande. There was nothing animated in the chat which started with a low-five and lasted the entire 18th over that Pathirana sent.
Chennai Super Kings’ Tushar Deshpande reacts after taking the wicket of Gujrat Titans’ Rashid Khan, right, during the Indian Premier League qualifier cricket match between Chennai Super Kings and Gujrat Titans in Chennai, India, Tuesday, May 23, 2023. (AP Photo /R. Parthibhan)
If anything, there were a few smiles and Bravo would just lift his left arm and show him the line he should be targeting. He would keep gesturing him to maintain calm. At this stage of the contest, it is the clarity and calmness that makes a difference between winning or losing. Not that Deshpande wasn’t aware of do’s and don’ts but the pressure that seemed to have got the better of him.
Right through the season, in training sessions Deshpande has gone through the same motion countless times. After starting off with the new ball with Simmons in the MAC B ground, all the fast bowlers then head back to the main ground, where Bravo will await them with old balls (even wet ones) in the bag. Each pacer is then made to bowl at least three overs with match simulation put in place. Most of their plans at the death centres around bowling wide yorkers and mixing up the lengths – something Bravo was exponent at.
In that 17th over that Deshpande sent down, he delivered two dot deliveries to Rashid Khan, and both followed the same template: full-ball, outside off. “Just had to remind him of the good balls he bowled. He does it every time in the nets,” Bravo would tell the host broadcaster later.
This is Bravo’s first coaching assignment, but listening to him, one thing stands out. He is not asking any of the bowlers to replicate what he or Lasith Malinga did. Instead he wants them to develop their own style, something he hinted earlier in an interaction. He believes yorkers still remain the most effective ball to bowl at the death, but is also aware it is the most difficult to execute. Hence, pacers are made to send down at least 10-15 yorkers in the death overs with the lines varying at all times. In their first couple of matches, Deshpande and Chahar had delivered no-balls, a bad-habit that Bravo ensured doesn’t continue by not allowing them to over step in the nets.
While much has been said about Mumbai Indians thin attack, Chennai too are on the same page. Apart from Deepak Chahar, who is 30, rest of them are so thin on experience including Deshpande, Pathirana, Akash Singh, Rajvardhan Hangargekar. However, with a formidable spin attack at their disposal, they have managed to extract the best out of their pace attack, especially someone like Pathirana.
“Pathirana is a special talent. You just have to keep him happy. You don’t coach someone like that…just keep guiding him, encourage him, and he is willing to learn. He doesn’t even like to miss optional practice. Even though he has been getting success, he is coming down every day, putting in all the drills in the practice. So you don’t coach him. Just keep him fresh and healthy,” Bravo told Star Sports.
Chennai Super Kings’ Matheesha Pathirana celebrates the wicket of Gujrat Titans’ Vijay Shankar, right, during the Indian Premier League qualifier cricket match between Chennai Super Kings and Gujrat Titans in Chennai, India, Tuesday, May 23, 2023. (AP Photo /R. Parthibhan)
If Bravo has been focussing on the art of nailing yorkers and mastering the slower balls, Simons has been putting the pacers to finding accuracy with the new ball. Before each session, it has become a common sight where the fast bowlers are first made to send down 10-12 deliveries at least to Simons – who will be crouching with the fielding gloves on. It is Simons’ way of ensuring that the seam movement is perfect when it comes out of the hand and the motion takes over for the rest of the spell. These might seem small things, but the attention to detail is hard to miss for Simons has been emphasising more on the accuracy aspect than anything, because it is a format where the margin of error is way too small.
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Left-arm pacer Akash Singh, who joined the team mid-way through the season as a replacement for Mukesh Chowdhury and featured in five matches, has been mostly working on the accuracy aspect. With the ability to move the ball back into the right-hander, the left-arm pacer has made early impressions with the Super Kings, but is yet to master the control of swing. “It has been very helpful,” he said about the practice sessions. “Simons pays a lot of attention on how to work with the new ball, how to work on the wrist position, how to work on the non-bowling arm. To be proactive and inform us about what we need to do, and helping us with how to do it, has been an amazing experience to learn from the coaches.”
Although the inexperience factor has cost them at times, overall every match Chennai’s attack has only improved with each passing game with Deshpande (21), Pathirana (17) doing enough damage to take them to their 10th final. If they stick to their mantra of “following the process” then the Super Kings can add a new crown to their already glittering trophy cabinet.
