Interview - Competiton drives player development for UPW head coach Jon Lewis

The UP Warriorz were the middle-table team last season. They won four. They lost four. Despite the claims of some Bazballers, the final result ultimately tells us about the status of the performance. 

However, considering that it was the first season, and UPW showed immense faith in Indian youngsters, it was quite a result for them to make it to the knockouts despite some glaring lacunas on their side. UP has built on it even further this season, and they possess quite an eclectic but substantive mix of players in their setup, who are much more experienced than the last time. 

It is a team boasting of top international-level finger spinners in Sophie Ecclestone and Deepti Sharma. It has multiple World Cup winners, Alyssa Healy and Tahlia McGrath. 

Then, in terms of Indian domestic talent, Gouher Sultana, Kiran Navgire, Poonam Navgire and Saima Thakor are all proven performers. Meanwhile, they also have the effervescent talents of Shweta Sehrawat and Parshavi Chopra, who remain among the few Indian girls who have won an ICC Trophy (2023 Under-19 Women's T20 World Cup)

Coaching a diverse team with a mixed history like this comes with its own challenges, and Jon Lewis, the head coach of the Warriorz, feels like a leader who has taken that challenge by the scruff of its neck. His eyes keep shifting to his other job, being head coach of the England Women’s Cricket team. 

In an exclusive conversation with Cricket.com, Lewis spoke about his job quite a bit and explained how he approaches it, especially in a result-driven format. 

“I think it's a balance of both [the way he looks at the game]. Numbers are useful to help predict what may happen. Most of the numbers that you get are historical, [based on] things that happened in the past. You’ll notice from the game itself that it always develops and grows," Lewis told Cricket.com.

"My overriding view is that people win games, so getting people in the right headspace and helping them perform to the best of their ability is probably the most important thing about running a cricket team,” Lewis said. 

The good thing about their setup is that Lewis is not the only one responsible for ensuring the abovementioned. Apart from an entire team of support staff, he also has the privilege of relying upon the wisdom and insights of an ICC Hall of Famer - Lisa Sthalekar - who is a mentor in the UPW setup right from the start of the franchise. 

Sthalekar has had a very strong connection with India, as she was born here but was later abandoned by her parents and adopted by an Australian couple from an orphanage in Pune. She knows the culture well here, and hence also helps in bridging the gaps between the players and the support staff.

“Lisa's role here is very much around exactly what I've just said about getting people in the right headspace. A mentor is someone who will guide you along your journey. But Lisa also has some great skills for noticing people - when people are up and down, trying to keep them level, giving them advice,” Lewis said about Sthalekar.

“She has a really nice manner, and she helps connect the different cultures in the team very, very well. Lisa plays a very crucial role here, and the way she goes about it is very unobtrusive but also very smart.”  

WPL is a short tournament, and after its over, the players go back to playing for their respective sides. For Lewis and his support staff, staying in touch with their domestic talents is the real challenge. That's where communication becomes quite a necessity, and Lewis talks about that challenge. 

“I think there's a lot of potential (Indian talents). There weren't a lot of results or performances,” the UP head coach said about his youngsters’ performance last season. 

“Some of our older players probably took most of the work on their back, and in case of the younger players’ struggle, I think a lot of that was down to just the occasion rather than their skill or ability. What I do know is that they've gone away and worked incredibly hard because they now see the standard, and they know where they need to get to. So I think one season in, I've come back, and I'm really, really impressed with how they've improved so that I would expect better performances from my younger players.”

Since the interaction, however, UP Warriorz have turned out in the worst possible manner, with two losses in two games. But one shining light across both encounters was Shweta Sehrawat. 

This season, she has looked quite good and scored 76 runs in two innings at a strike rate of 113.43. Last year, she scored less than this (34 runs) in six innings. 

Image courtesy - UP Warriorz Instagram

In Anjali Sarvani, Poonam Khemnar, Parshavi Chopra, UP Warriorz are possibly the lightest on experience when it comes to their bowling contingent. That's where the duo of Deepti Sharma and Sophie Ecclestone play a major role. 

They balance the youth with their experience and skill, carrying immense responsibilities as the leading bowlers of the side. Not only can they be all-phase bowlers, but also they will be crucial to the team's chances, given that their entire setup has been tilted towards the spinners. 

“Unbelievably lucky,” said Jon Lewis when we asked him how he felt about having Sharma and Ecclestone in his side. “We've got two incredible talents and two incredible spin bowlers. And they regularly show how good they are at the international level.”

“Now again, it's finding the right slot for them to bowl in and how we use them to the best of our ability for the team at the right time. But yeah, I'm really fortunate to have those two fellas on the team.”

Sophie Ecclestone is yet to light up the season after the first two games, as she has picked up a wicket in each of the games but has also leaked runs at 7.6 runs/over, which is 1.8 runs/over more than her T20I economy as of now. However, Lewis' trust in Ecclestone is paramount, which drives his confidence in her abilities. 

“100%, it comes from trust. She does incredibly well every time she walks out to the cricket field for me. I know that Sophie is an incredible talent with a huge amount of ability. A lot of that comes from her physical strength; she’s really tall and strong. She’s able to get the hand on the ball a better bit than the others who aren't that tall. She’s really an incredibly competitive person. I have watched her perform even before I took over the England job.”

This was about the WPL. However, Lewis has had a long relationship with the women’s game. Apart from being an English cricketer, as a coach, he has been in the women’s cricket setup of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) since 2022. He has seen the players' potential worldwide and the good health of women’s cricket, but he also feels they don’t realise where the ceiling is as of now. Competitions like the WPL are key for the England national coach. 

“I still believe that the ceiling is very high for women's cricket, particularly, and it is growing and growing fast. I think that in this WPL, you'll see more and more skills from all the players in the competition. And when you grow that, and you grow competition within national sides and franchise sides, then people grow, and other people fall by the wayside.”

“So I've got a strong belief around competition driving development. And the more competition there is and the tougher them face of the competition there is individuals will find a way to get to the top. So that can only be good for the game, and that can only grow the game."