How Mumbai Maidan coach Patwal''s tough-love sessions gave Harmer his second wind

Kolkata, Nov 15 (PTI) Long before Simon Harmer returned to India as a polished, battle-hardened offspinner with a decade of reinvention behind him, there was a 10-day session in Mumbai -- a cramped indoor nets session in 2016 -- where everything changed for him.

Harmer calls it the "ammunition" that rebuilt his career.

Umesh Patwal, the unorthodox, itinerant maidan coach behind that transformation, calls it something simpler: sheer hunger.

"He’s not a giving-up guy,” Patwal told PTI from Baroda, recalling the 10-day marathon he put Harmer through nine years ago.

“He looked frustrated in the first couple of days but he kept at it… he wanted to change his life. Kept doing it.” The regimen bordered on brutal. Breakfast meetings turned into 7.30-9.30am sessions, followed by another block till 1pm, and then three to four hours in the evening.

Day after day, under humidity and heat, Harmer drilled, failed, recalibrated.

“It was draining and rigorous,” Patwal says. “But he never gave up.” That willingness to endure the grind, and Patwal’s left-field methods, would become the hinge of Harmer’s reinvention.

Harmer’s first international stint had collapsed under weight of expectation. He had entered the Test side in 2015 as a prolific domestic bowler, but South Africa’s 3-0 thrashing in India left scars.

“Perhaps in 2015 when I got dropped... that was when I realised I wasn’t good enough,” Harmer admitted after play, giving Patwal full credit after he triggered India's downfall for 189 allout riding on his 4/30.

He ripped through India’s left-handers with precision and also had the inform Dhruv Jurel to give South Africa a hope.

“I came back to India in 2016 to work with Umesh Patwal in Mumbai and I discovered a lot about spin bowling that I didn’t know. That gave me the ammunition to get better and become a decent spinner.” That “ammunition” came from ideas that would make traditional coaches raise eyebrows. The orthodox thinking says: tighten the grip to get more revs. Patwal believed the opposite: hold the ball loose, let the thumb do more work.

It clicked slowly, painfully.

Only late in a county game against Middlesex after months of repetition did Harmer feel the difference.

“It was the little things learnt in India that helped me,” he later reflected.

The Patwal way: a coach who worked everywhere, with everyone ============================================== Patwal himself is one of Indian cricket’s most travelled, quietly influential coaches.

A Division A cricketer on Mumbai maidans, he has mentored Afghanistan -- from working with Mohammad Nabi and Asghar Stanikzai to helping them clinch T20 and ODI status. He was also their batting coach when they played their inaugural Test in Bengaluru in 2018.

He has also worked with Nepal at the 2018 World Cup Qualifiers, coached England Women before a World Cup, and sharpened New Zealand internationals like Ish Sodhi and Grant Elliott.

Now 51, he is the U-23 Assam spin-bowling coach and will meet Harmer again in Guwahati next week when the venue makes its Test debut.

A decade of reinvention ================= After his time with Patwal, Harmer signed with Essex as a Kolpak player in 2017 and became one of the county circuit’s most feared operators.

He has never finished outside the Championship’s top ten wicket-takers, topping the charts in 2019, 2020 and 2022.

He bowled Essex to titles with relentless accuracy, quicker spin, and subtle variations honed on flat surfaces where loop alone wasn’t enough.

After Brexit ended Kolpak deals, Harmer returned to South African contention, no longer the insecure rookie trying to match R Ashwin “bowling like a jet”.

“I’m a lot more confident in my ability,” he said. “I don’t have as many doubts as I did back then.” Patwal believes the best is still ahead.

“I still feel he has at least four-five years left in him and will play a decisive role in this series,” he said. “South Africa may not win this match but definitely in Guwahati he will be the X-factor. Conditions will be alien.” “He wanted to change his life,” Patwal said. “That’s what made the difference,” he signed off. PTI TAP ATK