Cricket: Mills wipes slate clean for new beginning

Kyle Mills will share the new ball with Shane Bond in tomorrow's morning (NZT) Twenty20 match against Sri Lanka. Photo / Hawke's Bay Today

COLOMBO - While Shane Bond's four overs will be watched intently at the R Premadasa Stadium, Kyle Mills is planning to prove his rating as one-day cricket's third-ranked bowler remains justified.

Bond's return to the New Zealand duty for the first time in two years is an obvious focal point when the two-match Twenty20 series begins tomorrow morning (12.30am NZT).

However, Mills also hopes it will be a stepping stone to resurrection of his 19-test career.

Mills will have first dibs on sharing the new ball with Bond while fellow-seamer Ian Butler is vying for a place in the bowling calculations with spinner Nathan McCullum before a final decision is announced at the toss.

Captain Daniel Vettori's faith was an early-season boost for Mills who might now contemplate a busy workload in next week's Tri-Series here featuring India and the Champions Trophy in South Africa later this month.

Then there are inbound tours by Pakistan, Bangladesh and Australia to round out a busy summer.

Should the 30-year-old Aucklander, who has 149 wickets at 26.40 from one-day international 102 appearances, remain an automatic choice it will be some compensation for a frustrating six months starting last November.

Devastated to be omitted from the lineup to play Australia on a Brisbane green top tailored for his outswingers, Mills was sent home to stew with Auckland before he was recalled for the home tests against the West Indies.

However, Mills then found the star-studded Indians a far tougher proposition and after an expensive analysis in the 10-wicket loss in Hamilton he was chopped for the remainder of the three-test series.

Mills returned for the one-dayers against India and then ended up on the subcontinent - contracted to Mumbai in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Unfortunately the tournament was another demoralising exercise as he was consigned to the periphery.

"We had 10 overseas players and only used five," he said.

"You usually have three (foreign) batsmen and a bowler so I was competing with (Sri Lankan) Lasith Malinga.

"He had a really successful tournament so it was pretty hard to get in there."

Mills had to be content with net bowling and brainstorming with Mumbai's coach, former South African allrounder Shaun Pollock.

"I'm a similar bowler to him so I spent a lot of time having cricketing conversations with him.

"He gave me a few ideas on what to so in certain situations. I really wanted to implement them at the tournament but couldn't get a crack."

Ideally those strategies will be put in place over the following months, starting with a Sri Lankan batting unit that ran rough shod over New Zealand's Twenty20 attack at Trent Bridge in June.

Mills had 41 taken from his four overs in Nottingham as Sri Lanka eliminated New Zealand from the ICC World Twenty20.

He was not the only bowler to suffer - Vettori was also unusually expensive - so the experience was a timely reminder that bowling plans had to be carried out with precision.

"If we execute them we can go all right but as soon as we deviate from our plans we really get hurt," Mills said.

"We don't really have that extreme pace to get away with that slight error in judgement," he said, though Bond will hopefully remedy that deficiency.

Mills was relishing the prospect of operating in tandem again with New Zealand's strike weapon.

"We help each other when we open the bowling together," he said.

"Bondy's bowling quickly so the batsmen are always on the back foot and circumspect.

"When I was at the other end trying to bowl line and length and maidens, the batsmen will tend to be a little bit more aggressive to me.

"I felt if I bowled good balls and they were attacking then that would give me a chance of getting a wicket."

Although a 20th test seems a distant prospect with Chris Martin, Iain O'Brien, Daryl Tuffey and Bond already creating a logjam, Mills was staying optimistic.

"I'm out of the fold a little bit but I still have the desire to get back and play test cricket. It's the true form of the game," he said.

- NZPA