Image courtesy of: Zimbio

Mills has never captained New Zealand before

New Zealand pace bowler Kyle Mills has replaced Kane Williamson as captain for the Black Caps’ upcoming limited overs tour of Sri Lanka, which gets underway on November 10.

Williamson was supposed to lead New Zealand during their tour of Sri Lanka, but thanks to a fractured thumb he sustained in the first ODI against Bangladesh in Mirpur, he will miss the entire series.

Williamson was also picked to lead the side after regular skipper Brendon McCullum and veteran batsman Ross Taylor were told to start preparing for the upcoming home series against the West Indies in December and India in January.

This will be Mills’ first time captaining New Zealand.

One of the main problems Mills has to solve is finding a way to stop New Zealand’s batting line-up from collapsing after losing a few wickets within a short period of time.

During their last tour of Sri Lanka, which was in 2012, New Zealand lost 3-0 and Mills can expect another tough series as he will have to survive without McCullum, Taylor and Williamson.

However, opening batsman Rob Nicol, whose last ODI came in January, has been recalled, along with pace bowler Andrew Ellis, who is replacing Ian Butler.

Butler was ruled out of the tour after failing to recover from a back injury.

“It’s disappointing that Ian’s back didn’t settle in time for the Sri Lanka tour,” New Zealand’s selection chief, Bruce Edgar, said. “We’ll also bring in Otago’s Neil Broom for the final ODI and the two Twenty20s as additional cover.”

New Zealand Squad: Kyle Mills (capt), Corey Anderson, Anton Devcich, Grant Elliott, Andrew Ellis, Tom Latham (wk), Mitchell McClenaghan, Nathan McCullum, Adam Milne, Colin Munro, James Neesham, Rob Nicol, Luke Ronchi, Hamish Rutherford, Neil Broom (for final ODI and T20s)