Kyle Mills Urges His KKR Rookie Bowlers To Embrace The Challenge Of Playing Against Virat Kohli

The Indian Premier League has proved to be the breeding ground for youngsters to showcase their precocious skills against the best in the world and Kolkata Knight Riders bowling coach and former New Zealand cricketer, Kyle Mills, feels that young fast bowlers like Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Shivam Mavi can earn a name for themselves if they can dismiss the legendary Virat Kohli.

The 13th edition of the IPL will take place in the United Arab Emirates between September 19-November 10. The tournament will take place across three bio-secure venues in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah.

In a recent interaction with ANI, Kyle Mills urged the youngsters like Nagarkoti to embrace the challenge of bowling against the likes of Virat Kohli besides revealing the kind of advice that he would the rookie fast bowlers for IPL 2020.

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.”

“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.” Kyle Mills said.

”You just need to trust your abilities’- Kyle Mills’s advice to his KKR bowlers

KKR have a brilliant crop of bowlers in the form of Pat Cummins, Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Prasidh Krishna, Shivam Mavi, Kamlesh Nagarkoti. Mills said the key aspect of his training will be give confidence to the bowlers and encourage them to keep trusting their abilites.

“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,” Kyle Mills said.

The former Kiwi international also opened up about the experience of living in a bio-bubble in these unprecedented times.

“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.” he added.

“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.

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