I THOUGHT: I’M GOING TO DIE!
Spinal problem rocked young bowler Mills
IT was perhaps fortunate that Tymal Mills was not aware of the full extent of the tests being carried out on the mystifying back injury that had halted his progress as one of the fastest and most exciting young bowlers in the world.
‘I had tests for multiple sclerosis and to see if any tumours were growing in my spine,’ said Mills, a man Alastair Cook rates as among the quickest he has ever faced. ‘I had lumbar punctures done. It wasn’t nice and, at the time, I didn’t realise the seriousness of it.
‘The doctors didn’t really tell me what was going on and it was only after I’d got the all-clear that he told me what his concerns were. Luckily I was blind to it at the time. After it was done I googled a few things and I thought, “Oh God I’m going to die” but it all came back OK.’
This was in 2014, a year after Mills had created a huge impact by exceeding 94 miles per hour while bowling for Essex against England in a televised Ashes warm-up. So quick and hostile was he that he caused alarm by striking Graeme Swann in the arm and almost put him out of the Ashes.
The cricketing world seemed at his feet, not least because he has the added ingredient of being a leftarmer and there were calls for Mills to be thrown into the following winter’s Ashes when he impressed as a net bowler for England in Perth. Then came tingling sensations and numbness in his legs.
‘It has been pretty horrible,’ said Mills. ‘Last year I sat down with everybody and retirement was spoken about. I had medical grounds for retiring but I was never going to take that option.
‘Just having those words spoken meant it wasn’t the best time of my life. At 22 years old I was going well one week and then not so the next. It took me a while to get my head around that and bounce back.’
By this time, after a summer on the sidelines at Essex spent largely trying to find out what was wrong with him, Mills had made a move to Sussex that could have ended before it had even begun had he not finally been diagnosed.
‘How long have you got?’ smiled Mills, when asked to explain exactly what his problem was. ‘It’s basically the way my spine is made up because the gap between my spinal cord and my vertebrae is much smaller than the average person.
‘Mix that in with the fact I’m hypermobile — which is one of the reasons I can bowl fast — and my spine moves more than most. The more overs I bowl and the more my spine is moving agitates my spinal cord and it reaches a point where it malfunctions and I get these pains in my legs.
‘It happened in my last season at Essex and it hadn’t happened at all before then. I can’t tell you why. If I wasn’t a professional cricketer it wouldn’t be a problem and if I was a batter or a spinner it would be fine. It’s just what I do. That’s the problem.’ A highly promising career would surely have been cut short had Mills been around in any other era. The demands of firstclass cricket, for now, are beyond him, as he cannot bowl long spells. But this is the era of Twenty20 cricket and that means there is plenty for him to play for.
‘I’m starting off trying to play a good block of Twenty20 cricket and get through that,’ said Mills, 23. ‘Then 50-over cricket the middle of next summer and we’ll see how it is. I’m not aiming to play championship cricket next year. I’m trying to get through the winter first and then the whole of next season. Then we’ll see how we go from there.’
Such is his potential that he is not recuperating at home. Instead he is with the England Performance Programme here in Dubai under the tutelage of ex-England coach Andy Flower, where he is preparing for a five-match Twenty20 series against Pakistan A next month.
Whisper it, but if all goes well Mills could catapult himself into contention as something of a secret weapon for the World Twenty20 in India in March as arguably the most exciting of the flurry of left-armers now making an impression on English cricket.
Reece Topley and David Willey are leading the way with England in limited-overs matches in the United Arab Emirates, while Mark Footitt, who can also bowl 90 miles per hour plus, will tour South Africa with England and is a serious contender for the third seamer’s place in the first Test on Boxing Day.
Mills knows he has some way to go to catch those three up. ‘Even now they might not have fully diagnosed my problem but various specialists from around the world have had a look and, because fast bowling is a unique thing coupled with the symptoms and how I’m made up, it hasn’t been seen much before,’ said Mills.
‘They’ve come up with this and the ECB have made my training specific to me and they’ve looked after me really well. I’m on pretty much a completely different programme to all the other bowlers. It’s all related to getting me in the best shape to hopefully have a long career.’
That career will now come as the ultimate white-ball specialist. ‘I’m definitely more focused because a third of my career is potentially not open to me and I want to be the best white-ball bowler I can be — and one of the best white-ball bowlers in the world. I think I’ve got the capabilities to do that.
‘I’m definitely lucky in that I’m a better white-ball cricketer. If it had been the other way round and I was a better red-ball bowler with this condition, I wouldn’t be sitting here now. I’d have to reconsider things. My career is going to go down a different path potentially now but hopefully it will benefit me and hopefully it will benefit England.’
And if he does play for England there will be no holding back on pace to protect his body. ‘I always want to bowl fast and, if I play a TV game and I haven’t bowled at least one ball over 90 mph, I’m a bit gutted with myself to be honest,’ said Mills.
‘That’s what I’ve come to expect of myself. I want to be known as an out-an-out fast bowler with good skills — my slower ball is my best ball to be honest — and if I can put it all together it will be good.’
Good for him and potentially very good for England.