Embrace the challenge of bowling to Kohli: Kyle Mills' message to young KKR bowlers

By Baidurjo Bhose
New Delhi [India], September 16 : The Indian Premier League (IPL) has provided youngsters a platform to showcase their skills and Kolkata Knight Riders' bowling coach Kyle Mills feels that rookies like Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Shivam Mavi will be able to earn glory if they are able to dismiss India and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli in this edition of the tournament.
In an interaction with ANI, Mills opened up about the kind of advice he would be giving to youngsters in the KKR camp and how challenging it has been living in a bio-secure bubble in the UAE.
The IPL 2020 is slated to be played in the UAE from September 19 -November 10. This edition would be played across three venues -- Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah.
When asked what advice he would be giving to Nagarkoti and Mavi about bowling to Kohli, Mills said: "Embrace the challenge of playing against Virat Kohli, that would be the message from me to young guys like Nagarkoti and Mavi in the group. Kohli is the best cricketer in the world, he is amazing to watch. He certainly leads by example off the park as well. For our young bowlers, they can make a statement. Young cricketers who are on the rise, they have a great opportunity to make a statement, if they embrace the challenge and don't run away from it, this would be fascinating to watch over the course of the next eight weeks."
KKR boasts of amazing bowling options such as Pat Cummins, Lockie Ferguson, Nagarkoti, Mavi, Kuldeep Yadav, Chris Green, Sunil Narine, Prasidh Krishna and Andre Russell. The KKR bowling coach believes that the key aspect of his training would be to give confidence to all bowlers to keep faith in their own abilities.
"We are going to come up against some really good players in this tournament. You have got the likes of ABD, Warner. The message that we will give to our players is that you wouldn't be here if you weren't a good player. You are selected for KKR because you deserve to be here. You don't have to change much when you come up against big players, when you try to be someone else, then you can witness failure. You just need to trust your abilities. That will be the message from me to all the players in the side," Mills said.
When asked about living in a bio-secure bubble, Mills said: "First of all for me personally, I am loving being back involved in a team, that's what I miss about playing cricket, I have been out for the game for five years and now I am involved in a team setup where we all are trying to achieve something, it is really exciting for me."
"These are different times, anytime you find an Indian cricketer who hasn't played the game for six months, it clearly gives an indication that we are living in different times. We all are coming from different parts of the globe and we have been affected by this pandemic differently. It is fascinating to hear about the stories from everyone as to how they are coping with the COVID-19, but with this preparation for a tournament, there is a lot at stake, we have had more preparation than a normal IPL so it's nice," he added.
Mumbai Indians will lock horns with Chennai Super Kings in the tournament opener on September 19 in Abu Dhabi. Kolkata Knight Riders will take on Mumbai Indians in their first match of the tournament on September 23.
KKR squad: Dinesh Karthik (c), Andre Russell, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Warrier, Shivam Mavi, Shubman Gill, Siddhesh Lad, Sunil Narine, Chris Green, Eoin Morgan, M Siddharth, Nikhil Naik, Praveen Tambe, Pat Cummins, Rahul Tripathi, Tom Banton, Varun Chakravarthy.