Since Tymal Mills was diagnosed with a congenital back injury in 2015 he has never played more than 38 games in a calendar year. At 31, and despite the fact that since that diagnosis he has been unable to play any game longer than 20 overs a side, he has played fewer career Twenty20 matches than Sam Curran, six years his junior.
But going into England’s T20 series against West Indies he has played 36 times in 2023 and is on the verge of a double breakthrough: forcing his way back into an international side he has only played for once in the 22 months between their last trip to the Caribbean and this one, and establishing a new high-water mark in his battle against his own body.
