Team India’s men behind the scenes: Trevor Penney and Joe Dawes

Trevor Penney (L) with Anil Kumble

India’s excellent unbeaten run at the Champions Trophy impressed everyone. Batting has always been the strength of the Indian team and the batsmen lived up to that reputation. But it was the performance in the bowling and fielding departments that caught the eye.

Probably for the first time ever in a multilateral tournament, India could undisputedly claim to be the best fielding unit with numerous livewire fielders all over the field, taking excellent catches and making brilliant stops. India’s bowling unit also contributed as a complete unit with the pacers and spinners playing their part well, especially in the latter half of the tournament.

While the likes of Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma et al. are rightfully earning plaudits for their fielding, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ravichandran Ashwin and others for their bowling, credit must also be given to the men behind the scenes who played a key role in their success.

The team’s fielding coach Trevor Penney and bowling coach Joe Dawes have quietly gone about doing their work efficiently since taking charge in May 2011 and February 2012 respectively. Mahendra Singh Dhoni has often emphasized on the need to have specialist coaches to supplement the work done by the head coach. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for the two, but they have done a good job in raising the team’s bowling and fielding standards and with their efforts now bearing fruit, it augurs well for the future too.

Trevor Penney

Fielding has often been India’s reason for downfall for very long. There have been brilliant fielders, but those have been very few and overall team fielding was rarely up to the mark. When Trevor Penney took charge of his position as the fielding coach of the team in May 2011, he must have known he had a huge task at hand. Even the World Cup 2011 winning team had players like Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Munaf Patel whose fielding was well below-par and often resulted in extra runs being conceded and crucial catches dropped. The magnitude of work-at-hand couldn’t have been clearer to Penney when India had a terrible day at the field against England in the Kolkata Test last year. Being sent to address the press conference, he couldn’t offer any explanation for the team’s poor fielding.

The accolades the Indian team got for its fielding at the Champions Trophy shows the turnaround achieved by Penney over the last few months. His work has been significantly aided by the selection committee which gave him a much younger and athletic unit to work with. What helped of course was the fact that these players contributed with the bat and ball as well, and ensured that the team’s strongest XI was an excellent fielding side too. Players like Raina, Jadeja, Kohli, Rohit are natural athletes and their performance in the tournament was exemplary. The not-so-gifted fielders like Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar also did the job effectively. Even Ishant Sharma managed to hold on to the catches and make the important saves. The development of Ashwin, Raina as tidy slip fielders is good news for the team, which has needed someone to replace Dravid and Laxman in the slips after their retirements. Jadeja made a pertinent observation when he said that the new-look Team India had nobody “to hide in the field”.

Penney had rightly credited the side’s natural athleticism of players for the raised fielding standards, but one can’t discount the work done by him in developing this unit. The rigorous fielding drills are described by the team members as fun and competitive. A lesser known fact is that Penney also doubles up as a part-time batting coach and is known to spend time with batsmen to help improve their game.

Penney’s role will be important for the team in the run-up to the 2015 World Cup. He’ll have his work cut-out as the likes of Zaheer are likely to be involved in the team setup at some point. But given the way he’s transformed Ashwin from being a liability on the field to an effective fielder, we can expect him to find a solution for the others as well and continue to maintain the fielding standards that were set in the Champion Trophy.

Duncan Fletcher (L) and bowling coach Joe Dawes during a team training session

The Queenslander is an ex-policeman who has been used to handling situations far more important (catching criminals) than getting bowlers to bowl lengths that suit their style of bowling. According to him, being a cop brought perspective to his life, and he enjoys his cricket more because of that. Appointed as the bowling coach of the Indian team in February 2012 to replace Eric Simmons, Dawes joined as a relative unknown in the international circuit.

Known for his penchant for fitness and intensity, Dawes would have known about the magnitude of task ahead of him when he took the position. None of the fast bowlers who were part of the 2011 World Cup squad are even in the frame of being selected for the national side at present. Fitness issues are known to be a common problem for Indian pacers, be it Zaheer, Nehra, Munaf or Pathan. Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav, who played in the Champions Trophy, have a history of injuries as well. Maintaining the fitness regime of the fast bowlers and keeping them injury-free, while not compromising on pace and accuracy is the main task for Dawes.

The fast bowling on display at the Champions Trophy showed that the work done by him is on the right track and should be encouraged and supported in the future as well. People close to him say that he’s a person who likes being given some freedom to carry out his work in his style, and the results suggest that he does deserve it from the Indian selectors.

Bhuvneshwar bowled with a good line & was economical, taking key wickets of openers in most matches. Umesh bowled at good pace and Ishant was effective too, with both taking important wickets. The spinners, Ashwin & Jadeja, took full advantage of the good work done by the pacers to take India to victory.

Just like Penney, Dawes’ role will be crucial in the preparation for the next World Cup, and he’ll have to develop a large pool of fast bowlers for the team, who manage the fitness, pace and accuracy aspects of their game properly.

Conclusion

Though neither Penney nor Dawes have played international cricket, they have the cricketing acumen to contribute significantly to the Indian cricket team, which was seen at the Champions Trophy victory. Having worked together at Queensland before, they both form a great support team to Duncan Fletcher and their work is appreciated by the Indian team players and reflected in the performances on the field.

The Indian cricket team’s quest to defend its World Cup title at Australia/New Zealand in 2015 will be best served if these two behind-the-scenes men are allowed to continue their good work and supported properly by the Indian selectors.