Tymal Mills is the forgotten man when it comes to England fast bowlers. But he is hoping to change all that by playing a starring role in next summer’s Twenty20 World Cup.
The 31-year-old, overshadowed by Mark Wood and Jofra Archer in recent years, has had a stop-start international career, playing just 13 times since making his England debut in 2016.
All of those matches have been T20s, a necessity given Mills has had to specialise in the shortest format ever since being diagnosed with a congenital back condition in 2015 that means too much fast bowling can agitate his spinal cord.
A successful career has been carved out since, with the Sussex quick in high demand on the T20 franchise circuit. Mills deals in subtlety and variations. But, like Wood and Archer, his quickest deliveries still comfortably exceed 90 miles per hour – a rare commodity England cannot overlook.
There have also been two World Cups for Mills, who broke down with a thigh injury in the United Arab Emirates in 2021 and was then a non-playing squad member when England won the tournament in Australia last year.
It’s that title Jos Buttler’s team will defend when they head to the West Indies and the United States in June. And Mills is hoping to nail down his place in the squad for next summer’s tournament during the five-match series against the World Cup co-hosts that starts in Barbados on Tuesday.
Mills was the leading wicket-taker in last year’s Hundred, taking 16 at 13.06 for Southern Brave, and, crucially, a 2023 summer that also saw him play a full part in the T20 Blast for Sussex was the first of his career he has been able to get through injury-free.
“I was at the zoo with the kids when I got the call to say I was in the squad for this series,” Mills tells i.
“I had a really good summer and played a full summer which was the most important thing. It’s something I haven’t really done before.
“I want to do everything I can to try and be in that squad for next summer’s World Cup. This is the first step to that.
“They’ve picked a pretty strong squad for this series. It’s pretty full strength apart from the guys going to India for the Test tour [in the New Year]. So it’s good to be in and around that group.”
Mills describes last year’s World Cup in Australia, when he came into the squad as a late injury replacement for Reece Topley, as “bittersweet”.
“Of course, I would have loved to have played but I can still say I was part of a World Cup-winning squad,” he says.
The previous year in the UAE, Mills’s value was evident when England won their first four games with him in the team and then lost the next two, including the semi-final against New Zealand, after he sustained a tournament-ending injury.
“That one again was definitely bittersweet,” he says. “I think it was four years between England appearances when I got back into that squad. I was in the playing XI for every game until I tore my quad which was really, really, really frustrating.
“Looking back, I’m proud to have got back into it and it just gives you a taste of where you want to be consistently. Fingers crossed I can stay fit and give myself the best chance of being in the XI next summer because winning a World Cup is the pinnacle for any player.”
England have been forced to reassess their approach to white-ball cricket following a shambolic recent 50-over World Cup in India. Despite talk of behind-the-scenes issues, Mills believes normal service will be resumed during next summer’s T20 title defence.
“It will be interesting to see if the environment is any different following that World Cup in India,” he says.
“There’s been a lot spoken about the 50-over World Cup. I wasn’t part of it or out there so I can’t give too much comment. But when it comes to T20 cricket I know the preparation for this World Cup is going to be a lot better. We’re playing this series now [in the Caribbean], we have another series at home against Pakistan in May.
“I’m sure the vast majority of the lads will be in the Indian Premier League before that so come World Cup time next summer everyone in that squad will go into it having played a lot of T20 cricket whereas that wasn’t the case with the 50-over World Cup.
“We’ve got enough quality in English cricket. You can put out multiple T20 teams that are really strong. Everybody should be confident but we’ve still got to do it out on the pitch.”
The white-ball future of Test captain Ben Stokes is uncertain after his recent knee surgery and decision to miss next year’s IPL to concentrate on being as fit as possible for next summer.
Having intimated he will again quit ODI cricket after coming out of retirement for the India World Cup, he may do the same after next summer’s T20 version.
Yet the all-rounder’s big tournament experience, including playing the match-winning innings in the finals of both the 2019 50-over tournament and last year’s T20 World Cup, means he is likely to be eyeing one last hurrah to limited-overs cricket in June.
“I hadn’t spent a lot of time with Stokesy until that last World Cup,” said Mills. “But seeing him first hand when he’s at his best and seeing what he’s able to give the team – with bat, ball, in the field, leadership – he is an X-factor cricketer.
“Fingers crossed he sorts his knee out and gets that as good as its going to be and then he can offer a few overs with the ball as well because having somebody in your top four or five that is a genuine bowler is a great thing to have.”