Kyle Mills: New Zealand’s bankable star

After years of blood, sweat and toil, New Zealand’s second highest wicket-taker in one-day cricket, Kyle Mills has been appointed as the captain of the one-day and T20 side. Bharath Ramaraj looks back at one of the most underrated bowlers in shorter formats of the game.

Kyle Mills © Getty Images

After years of blood, sweat and toil, New Zealand’s second highest wicket-taker in one-day cricket, Kyle Mills has been appointed as the captain of the one-day and T20 side. Bharath Ramaraj looks back at one of the most underrated bowlers in shorter formats of the game.

In an age of bashers and dashers sending the ball deep into the orbit with bazooka bats, it is hard to envisage a bowler who bowls at military medium-pace surviving the ordeal of shorter formats of the game.

New Zealand’s quintessential seamer Kyle Mills though, is one of those select few bowlers who have defied the logic by taking 223 wickets at 26.38 and that too at an impressive economy rate of 4.71. Even since 2010, Mills has maintained a commendable economy rate of 4.77.

Mills’s rather unfashionable qualities which are to hit a good length spot, extract bounce and wobble it around just enough either way at about 80mph to catch the batsman’s edge sounds very prosaic. However, he has shown with his success in one-day cricket that there is still a place for medium-pacers in the abridged version of the game.

It was back in 1997-98 when Mills came into the limelight with ultra-consistent performances in the Under-19 World Cup in South Africa. In fact, it was his spell of four for 32 against the Zimbabwean Under-19 team that helped New Zealand to qualify for the finals against England in that tournament.

The courageous conquistador from Auckland soon broke into New Zealand’s one-day set-up by making his debut in another of those inconsequential 50-over tournaments played between New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Pakistan in Sharjah in 2002. Since then, Mills has been steady rather than a turbo-charged performer capable of turning the match on its head with insane brilliance.

Actually, for any player, sport is a vicious cycle with full of triumphs and losses, but with Mills, one can rarely recall him letting the team down. He is undoubtedly the bankable star in the New Zealand side.

The essence of Mills’s bowling can be encapsulated by how he showcased his well-oiled craft in the recently-concluded ICC Champions Trophy match played between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at Cardiff. On a track, where it nipped around a bit, Mills’s strongest ally was to generate enough seam movement either way helped him to ensnare two early wickets.

With a willow in hand too, Mills is more than just a tail-ender. In the one-day series against South Africa in 2013 which New Zealand famously won, Mills showcased exemplary technique and undiluted resolve in the first One-Day International (ODI) at Paarl to handle Steyn and CO. with aplomb.

A few days ago, Mills was appointed as the captain for New Zealand’s tour of Sri Lanka for the shorter formats of the game after Kane Williamson was ruled out with a fractured thumb. It was a just reward for the blood, sweat and toil that Mills has put in for more than a decade. It would be interesting to see whether at the end of a long winding season, the extra burden of captaining his country would affect his bowling on some sluggish wickets of Sri Lanka.

The truth is, Mills has a fine record in the Emerald Isles’, as he has taken 11 wickets at 26.90 in nine one-day games in Sri Lanka. Sluggish wickets of Sri Lanka with a bit of movement off the pitch tend to suit his style of bowling.

The ebullient medium-pacer, Mills would never fill acres and reams of newsprint occupied by the blue-eyed boys of cricket. But with dedication, discipline and a single-minded focus to bowling, Kyle Mills has carved a niche for himself in the shorter formats of the game.

(Bharath Ramaraj, an MBA in marketing, eats, drinks and sleeps cricket. He has played at school and college-level, and now channelises his passion for the game by writing about it)

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