Mills Back To Shoulder T20 World Cup Tilt

Last winter he was in a brace but fine form in the Hundred can propel the skillful death bowler to a key role for England

- Simon Burnton

England will spend the first week of their winter in quarantine, though for Tymal Mills the restrictions will feel trivial compared with those he faced a year ago. Mills spent three months of last winter in a back brace, recovering from a stress fracture and plotting a summer in which he would fight his way back to fitness and bowl so well that the England selectors who had ignored him for most of the past four years would have no option but to crowbar him into the squad for the Twenty20 World Cup in the UAE. Last night he boarded the plane to Oman.

“I managed to muddle through last summer, but it was pretty sore in the end,” he says. “Most of the winter I spent in a back brace, day and night, apart from when I was asleep or in the shower. That was tough. It was tough mentally more than anything – during the lockdown, I wasn’t doing anything socially either, the weather was pretty bleak, and I’m used to spending winters away playing in the Twenty20 leagues.

“ I knew I had to get through it and then ramp up the training come the spring. I’d kind of stopped thinking about England – I always believed I was good enough to get back in the mix, it’s just been a case of being able to prove I was fit enough to be selectable. That was something I hadn’t done until this year.”