Jon Lewis: "Proving people wrong was probably my major motivation across my whole career"

T20 BLAST FROM THE PAST: KISHAN VAGHELA speaks to the former Gloucestershire and England swing bowler about his decision making in the 2007 Twenty20 Cup final against Kent, working on pace and opportunities at the international level

After a summer in which Jofra Archer has wowed spectators with his express pace, which at one stage touched 96.1mph, Chris Woakes has swung the ball around corners, and Stuart Broad has made the most of the offerings from the pitch, the variety of pace bowling on show has been unparalleled.

To be blessed with frightening speed and be capable of producing prodigious movement is the bread and butter for bowlers, but a combination which never appears to border on the cusp of perfection. 

Jon Lewis was, and still is, all too aware of those pressures when he opened the bowling with his skiddy, medium-paced awayswingers, extracting greater movement and demonstrating better accuracy than most of his colleagues, the result of devising a coping mechanism to deflect the criticism of coming in at lower speeds.

"I had less pace than other people, that's a fact. But the way I thought about it was 'I have to be more accurate and I have to be able to move the ball more', so I would work on different skills.

"Whether or not you get selected is a personal choice of selectors and coaches. A lot of the time I didn't get selected because of the style that I bowl, because the numbers that I produced at international level were very good. They were comparable to all my peers, regardless of what pace they bowled at.

"I think I should have played 100 Test matches! But you have no control over selection, so I never worried about that, however some of those things would motivate me to try and prove people wrong.

"The head coach Duncan Fletcher was never a fan of my style of cricketer, so I would go to training and I would go 'I'll show you' and it would motivate me to try and do better and force my way into the team.

"I never ever gave up on that, and that motivation regarding selection and proving people wrong has been with me since a very young age. It was probably my major motivation across my whole career.

"Until you get into the situation and show people what you can do on the big stage, there is always someone who might be perceived better than you, and the only way to hold onto my place was my performance. And even sometimes then that is not enough!"

When staring at his numbers on England debut in the three formats, it is evident to see what he alludes to.

Picking up four wickets against Australia on his T20I debut in Southampton in June 2005, including ripping out Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke and Andrew Symonds for ducks, was followed a few days later by dismantling the Bangladesh top order on his ODI bow.

A Test match debut a year later against Sri Lanka saw him take another three-wicket haul, yet that would prove to be his sole red-ball outing for his country in an international career that spanned just 16 matches.

^{Jon Lewis took four Australian wickets on his England debut}

That feeling of inadequacy, no matter how you perform, can add to the uneasy feeling of walking on a tightrope, smiling at the challenge ahead but convincing yourself that at no time must you look down.

Lewis' international career had almost the same feel to it, acknowledging fully well that he had all the tricks in the book to make it as a successful England swing bowler but being fully aware that a couple of no shows could prove terminal.

"I never felt uncomfortable [at the international level]. So I don't know if that makes you feel comfortable. I felt like 'I can do this, I know my method and I understand my technique and I feel like I am competent, so that gives me confidence to go and execute my skills'.

"At the same time I don't think I ever felt comfortable because I knew that I had to play at my best all the time. To be successful at that time for me with my style of cricket, I had to be at my best. Because I have confidence it what I can execute, I never felt uncomfortable, or nervous or anxious or concerned about not playing well.

"I was always confident that my skills was up to what I wanted to do but I never felt 'I am comfortable here and I am going to just walk out there and do really well'. I knew I had to play at my best and stretch myself to the limit to play at that level."

Those limitations were well and truly tested when Lewis attempted to add a touch more pace to his arsenal with former England bowling coach Troy Cooley at the ECB National Academy Centre in 2004.

However, while a biomechanical analysis strived to increase pace, it proved to result in an enlightening experience which held much more seminal value for Lewis.

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"If the art of batting is balance and control of the blade, the art of bowling is disrupting balance with pace or movement. You can only disrupt the balance by moving the ball, changing the angle.

"James Anderson is an absolute master at it and he did it at five to eight miles per hour faster than me.

"I bowled a little bit quicker [with Cooley] but I didn't swing the ball as much so I became less effective. What he did do is teach me about the biomechanics of my action, and I actually developed a better indipper because of it.

"I was at a stage in my career where I was intelligent enough to understand my technique and go 'ok what have I changed, why has that happened? Why is the ball not moving as much and what did I used to do'.

"That gave me an understanding of where you load the ball and how your bowling circle work which has now gone on to help me as a coach.

"Are there things I could have done differently? For sure, but it could have taken away my greatest strength, which was accuracy and movement for the sake of three or four miles per hour. So those are always the questions you ask yourself as a coach."

How to get the best out of the England U19 cricketers is not the only question that Lewis asks of himself.

Asked how often he thinks about his decision-making in the 2007 Twenty20 Cup final defeat for Gloucestershire against Kent, he replies: "Sometimes. I am a reflective thinker, sometimes that game gets replayed because it was a great game of cricket, lots of things happened in that game and my kids will ask me about it.

^{Lewis is the current bowling coach for the England U19s}

"They ask what happened there and why did you do that. And I will say well watch what I do. I could have done this here.

"It is the day I reflect most about in the time I was captain and the decisions that you make around the game and that could affect winning or losing that game, and the things you replay in your head."

The decision which Lewis believes decided the outcome of the day was his decision to give the final over of Kent’s reply to Carl Greenidge over spinner Ian Fisher.

Gloucestershire's chances of a maiden T20 title received a significant boost when they convincingly defeated a star-studded Lancashire, including Anderson, Andrew Flintoff, Muttiah Muralitharan and Dominic Cork in their semi-final by eight wickets.

However, the batting in the final didn't go quite so swimmingly and a score of 146 for 8 batting first meant that Gloucestershire were always behind in the game, but after Rob Key and Joe Denly had given Kent an excellent start, Lewis, alongside medium-pacers Mark Hardinges and Alex Gidman clawed them back into the game.

Nevertheless, Matt Walker and Darren Stevens ensured Gloucestershire never fully seized control of the game, even if 13 runs were required off the last over.

Stevens crunched two boundaries in the final six balls, which combined with a no-ball from Greenidge, saw Kent over the line, albeit after some umpiring confusion, to glory.

"That was the decision that I was tossing around in my head. The reason I hadn't used Fisher was because Walker was batting for quite a period of time, he had got 40-odd and he was a very good player of the spinners, he swept them very well.

"There was a shorter side on the offside and I remember thinking 'I can't get him [Fisher] in the game' because we were always just behind the game.

"In hindsight, I should have bowled Fisher for that last over, but it would have been a very bold move to bowl a left-arm spinner for the final over.

"He had bowled the last over of a game in qualifying against Worcestershire at Bristol and bowled very well and restricted them.

"But I ended up bowling Greenidge because I said 'he is my fast bowler', and he has bowled at the death, not particularly well ever, but I went back to him.

"I should have bowled Fisher, and I wish I had."

A year later another bold call was on its way at the county, but this time an off-the-field scenario which consequently brought the curtain down on Lewis' captaincy stint.

^{Lewis took two wickets in the 2007 Twenty20 Cup final}

The club had lined up John Bracewell for the 2009 season, and having caught wind of it, the incumbent at the time, Mark Alleyne, challenged the club and informed them of his intention to extend my contract.

Gloucestershire declined, and as a result the two parties parted ways and left Lewis with a Herculian task of managing the club until Bracewell's introduction.

"I was left to pick up the pieces and run the whole club basically as captain and coach and run the coaching team. I had just had my first child at that time, and I was emotionally absolutely worn out.

"The team hadn't stopped responding to me, but I had made some really tough decisions through that summer around the playing squad, I had had a directive from the club to try and trim the playing squad down.

"I just felt that I had had enough of this and it felt like the right time for me with a fresh coach coming in."

Relieving himself of the captaincy was followed by more than 50 wickets in each of the following three years.

It was therefore a surprise that a total departure from the club followed at the end of the 2011 season, but allegations of trying to earn as much in wages as possible towards the end of his career by moving to Surrey is something he totally refutes.

"Gloucestershire never offered me a contract. People have asked me quite a lot about why I left, saying I went for money and I went to Surrey for more money. I didn't, Gloucestershire didn't offer me a contract.

"They said they were going to and then they didn't. At that time, they were making cuts to try and redevelop the ground like it is now, and I was the highest paid player by quite some distance, I think.

"Looking back on it now from a head coach’s point of view and a financial perspective, I can see why that was an easy decision for them to make, to not offer me a contract.

"But what I think they underestimated was if they had offered me a contract for less money with a little bit more security, then perhaps that it something I would have stuck around and done."

A spell at Sussex followed his time at Surrey, but there was to be no repeat of the highs, or the lows, for a cricketer who understood the true meaning of underrated and underestimated.

As he so mildly puts, it really is a game of opinions, isn't it?