Tymal Mills has had ups and downs through his whole entire professional cricket career. From being diagnosed with a congenital back condition and being restricted to playing white ball cricket only, to being selected in England's final 15 player squad for the 2021 T20 World Cup. Mills could hold the key to England's success at the upcoming tournament.
With England missing star player Jofra Archer who won England the 2019 World cup due to a recurrent elbow injury, England had to look for an alternate pace bowler to partner Mark Wood. Mills was the obvious candidate to come into the side. He has had a very impressive 2021 taking 25 wickets combined in the Vitality Blast and also the inaugural edition of The Hundred. The benefits to Mills playing is that he offers the ability to bowl at any stage during the course of a T20. Opening the bowling during the blast and bowling at the death for the Southern Brave in The Hundred gives England captain Eoin Morgan a lot to play with. It is important to note as well that Mills is a very economical bowler. During the 2021 English season, Mills bowling economy was 6.81. This is a fantastic feat for the Sussex quick. However, Eoin Morgan and Chris Silverwood will be the deciding factors whether or not Mills will get to play at all out in the UAE and be stuck carrying drinks for the rest of the squad.
Since Morgan has taken over the white ball captaincy, he has liked to stick by the players who have been in the system over the past few years, and this could lead to Mills not playing. I believe this argument has some truth behind it with England's T20 team changing very little over the last few years. Only making a few minor tweaks here and their such as playing an extra spinner on a turning pitch or dropping an out and out bowler to play an extra batsman/all-rounder to offer further depth to their batting line-up. The last man who Morgan brought into the set up so late for a major tournament was in fact Jofra Archer. But in Archer's case, he couldn't have been in the England squad any earlier due to only qualifying in early 2019. Even with Mills having such impressive season with both county and the Southern Brave franchise, his spot in the side has not been cemented yet. This is also true as Morgan has been ruthless with his selection since the last T20 World Cup final. Examples of this are Liam Plunkett and Alex Hales. Liam Plunkett was one of the players who played in the 2019 World Cup final in the ODI (One Day International) format and since then has not been selected. Plunkett was dropped and never even received a phone call to explain why. Plunkett claims he is now at peace with never playing again for England and has left the English county system to play cricket in the United States. Alex Hales is another example of Morgan's immense power within English selection. Hales was banned in 2019 for recreational drugs use and was given a 21-day suspension from all forms of cricket. Since then, even with Hales being one of only three English batsmen to ever hit a T20 hundred for his county and scoring runs all around the world playing for different franchise T20 sides such as the Sydney Thunder in the BBL (Australia's T20 tournament) and Karachi Kings in the PSL (Pakistan's T20 tournament), Hales has not donned the English shirt. This can all lead back to Eoin Morgan as he claims he and other senior figures in the dressing room lost faith with Hales.
My thoughts on this are that if England are wanting to really challenge for this World Cup, they need to be able to adapt to the needs of each ground and also what each different wicket suits. Mills will also offer that extra pace and variations which will put fear into the opposition and his talent will speak for itself on the biggest stage as he thrives on big match pressure. Mills is also someone I believe can be trusted to deliver when the going gets tough and like Archer in 2019 should be someone Morgan should feel safe throwing the ball to and delivering on their set task. This for me is why I believe Mills will play a big part in this upcoming tournament.
Do you believe Tymal Mills will help England to bring home the T20 World Cup back to England for the second time? Or will he sit behind the other bowlers such as Chris Jordan, Mark Wood, Tom Curran, and Chris Woakes in the pecking order and miss out on playing?
Please feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.
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