Tymal Mills has been backed to justify his £1.44million price tag.

The Sussex paceman became the second highest paid overseas player in the Indian Premier League when Royal Challengers Bangalore broke the bank to sign him yesterday.

Only England team-mate Ben Stokes – who went to Rising Pune Supergiants for £1.74million – commanded a bigger fee at the IPL auction yesterday while Hove colleague and fellow England international Chris Jordan had to settle for a £60,000 pay-day.

Mills was part of a bidding war at the auction which pushed his fee up to 24 times his base price but Sussex assistant coach Jon Lewis insists he is worth every penny.

Lewis said: “It is a lot of money but it was almost the perfect storm. There were only three other genuinely fast bowlers in the auction in (Miguel) Cummings, (Kagiso) Rabada and (Mitchell) Johnson so all the teams who wanted a quick were going to go for him.

“He bowled very well for England in the Twenty20 series against India recently which meant his stock rose dramatically and the fact he can play the whole competition meant everything fell into place for him.

“He deserves it as he’s worked extremely hard to get where he is. He will take the whole price tag thing in his stride so that won’t be an issue for him.

“Of course he will be under pressure but you are always under pressure whether you are playing for Sussex, for England or in the IPL in front of 50 million people of the television. Tymal loves being in the limelight though and the bigger the spotlight put on him the better he seems to perform.”

Mills was diagnosed with a serious congenital spinal condition just six weeks into his first season with Sussex in April 2014.

He has not played first class cricket since and is limited to just Twenty20 cricket.

Lewis added: “He went through a lot of soul searching times when he first broke down about whether he would continue playing cricket but he obviously made the right choice as he’s now a millionaire!

“It’s been two years of hard graft since he first broke down to get to this position and during that time he has always had it in the back of his mind that if he doesn’t get it right then there is a chance he will lose the use of his legs. He is taking a huge risk with his body but between us we have found a way of making it work.”

Mills will not miss any cricket for Sussex but Jordan’s deal with Sunrisers Hyderabad means he will miss the opening two County Championship games along with the entire group stages of the Royal London One-Day Cup.

“From one point of view it is disappointing that Chris will miss some Championship and 50 overs games but the way I see it is that the experience he will get in the IPL will be of great benefit to the club,” added Lewis.

“The same goes for Tymal and the fact he has such a big price tag will also raise his profile which will have a knock-on effect when he comes back to Hove.

“He’s a big-name player now and people will follow him wherever he goes. That will attract more people to our games and hopefully bring in more sponsors who want to be associated with him. That can only be a good thing.”