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Tymal Mills


Mosher

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Looking forward to watching this promising bowler.

 

The chaos of Kanpur had found its way into the Media Centre at Green Park. It was hard to silence all the journalists so that an England player could start talking, the microphone blared out odd noises once he did start to talk, and an air conditioner came on abruptly, immediately followed by loud demands for it to be switched off again. But it wasn't.

Amid all this cacophony, Tymal Mills - England's left-arm quick - was focussed on the job at hand, just as he is on playing Twenty20 cricket around the world. "Miles", as one journalist called him, is an unintentional moniker that suits Mills rather well, both for the distance he has travelled across countries and for the speed at which he bowls.

Since playing his only international T20 to date, against Sri Lanka last summer, Mills has played 19 20-over contests in four different countries - in the NatWest T20 Blast, the Bangladesh Premier League, the Super Smash tournament in New Zealand and, most recently, Australia's Big Bash League.

Mills has been restricted to playing T20 cricket by a congenital back condition, and he said he last picked up a red ball "nearly two years ago" when he was forced into retirement from first-class cricket at the age of 22. After arriving in Kanpur, Mills said he was focused on playing only T20s, bowling at express pace, and making the most of T20 tournaments around the world. He has ruled out playing 50-over cricket for now.

"I'm not looking that far ahead at the moment," he said. "I've played 16-17 games so far this winter consecutively, I'm injury-free and I'm only 24, and I've spent a lot of time being injured. It's not much fun so I don't want to put myself at risk, actually, I want to keep healthy, keep enjoying playing cricket which I am at the moment.

"I'm having a great time travelling around, seeing the world, playing in different competitions. I'm playing well because my body is feeling good, it gives me confidence in my cricket, I don't want to jeopardise that at the moment. I'm only 24, you don't know what could happen but in the near future. I'm only looking to play T20 if I'm honest.

 

"The problematic thing with the symptoms and the injury I have, it kind of goes nowhere and that is a result of over-bowling. I've found a nice routine at the moment, of what I can and can't do. As I said, it's worked so far this winter, so I've been smart about how I've trained and how I've practised and how I've played. So obviously I'll look to continue that in the future."

 The chaos of Kanpur had found its way into the Media Centre at Green Park. It was hard to silence all the journalists so that an England player could start talking, the microphone blared out odd noises once he did start to talk, and an air conditioner came on abruptly, immediately followed by loud demands for it to be switched off again. But it wasn't.

Amid all this cacophony, Tymal Mills - England's left-arm quick - was focussed on the job at hand, just as he is on playing Twenty20 cricket around the world. "Miles", as one journalist called him, is an unintentional moniker that suits Mills rather well, both for the distance he has travelled across countries and for the speed at which he bowls.

Since playing his only international T20 to date, against Sri Lanka last summer, Mills has played 19 20-over contests in four different countries - in the NatWest T20 Blast, the Bangladesh Premier League, the Super Smash tournament in New Zealand and, most recently, Australia's Big Bash League.

Mills has been restricted to playing T20 cricket by a congenital back condition, and he said he last picked up a red ball "nearly two years ago" when he was forced into retirement from first-class cricket at the age of 22. After arriving in Kanpur, Mills said he was focused on playing only T20s, bowling at express pace, and making the most of T20 tournaments around the world. He has ruled out playing 50-over cricket for now.

"I'm not looking that far ahead at the moment," he said. "I've played 16-17 games so far this winter consecutively, I'm injury-free and I'm only 24, and I've spent a lot of time being injured. It's not much fun so I don't want to put myself at risk, actually, I want to keep healthy, keep enjoying playing cricket which I am at the moment.

"I'm having a great time travelling around, seeing the world, playing in different competitions. I'm playing well because my body is feeling good, it gives me confidence in my cricket, I don't want to jeopardise that at the moment. I'm only 24, you don't know what could happen but in the near future. I'm only looking to play T20 if I'm honest.

"The problematic thing with the symptoms and the injury I have, it kind of goes nowhere and that is a result of over-bowling. I've found a nice routine at the moment, of what I can and can't do. As I said, it's worked so far this winter, so I've been smart about how I've trained and how I've practised and how I've played. So obviously I'll look to continue that in the future."

Despite his injury, Mills was headstrong about not compromising on speed, one of his biggest assets which excited captain Eoin Morgan and coach Trevor Bayliss a few months ago. He once bowled Chris Gayle with a mean yorker at 93.3mph in the early overs of a NatWest T20 Blast match, and he clocks speeds in excess of 90mph almost at will.

"I clocked 150 (>93mph) a few times in the Big Bash, which was good," he said. "I'm always going to try and bowl quick. If I'm opening the bowling or bowling in the Powerplay, I'm going to come in and bowl hard because that's why I've been selected, really. But you've got to be smart because the faster you bowl, the faster it can go [off the bat] if you're bowling against some high-class batters, as it will be this series. It'll be a great experience just to see where I'm at. You've got to mix your pace up and mix your skills. But I'll always look to bowl quicker."

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india-v-england-2016-17/content/story/1079404.html

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A week ago Tymal Mills was in Melbourne with the Heat bowling to Kevin Pietersen. Three weeks ago he was in Auckland with the Aces trying to sneak one past Mahela Jayawardene. Two months ago he was in Chittagong with the Vikings pinning Kumar Sangakkara in front. On Tuesday morning he was in Kanpur with England at the Green Park stadium bowling some hostile stuff in a sporty-looking net to Jason Roy, Jos Buttler and Sam Billings before the first Twenty20 international on Thursday.

 

Mills is the most definitively modern English international cricketer to have emerged. He is essentially a freelancer who has been sharpened to a fine point by a career- and indeed health-threatening injury, from which he has rebuilt his game and his life. Retired from first-class cricket aged 22, the quickest bowler in England has dedicated himself instead to surfing the currents of the global T20 franchise circuit, a very charming, watchable, hugely talented gun for hire.

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