Cape Town - When David Miller came on to the international ODI scene, he was renowned for his dashing 40s and 50s at the end of the Proteas innings.
It became known as “Miller Time”, and just before the 2015 World Cup, the Pietermaritzburg scored his first hundred against the West Indies.
He followed it up with a terrific 138 not out off just 92 balls against Zimbabwe in the opening game in Hamilton, and Miller was well established in the team. He didn’t have a bad World Cup after that, with scores of 22, 20, 46 not out, 0, 49 and a brilliant unbeaten 49 off 18 balls in THAT semi-final against New Zealand.
But after that came a lean run where his highest score was 44 in 10 innings, and he lost his place in the starting XI for the England ODI series and was out of the squad altogether for the triangular in the Caribbean in June and July this year.
He had a horrific time in the IPL as well and lost the captaincy at the Kings XI Punjab, while he wasn’t much better in the Caribbean Premier League for the St Lucia Zouks either.
There has been something positive to come out of it, though, as Miller went off to find form for the SA A team on their trip to Australia over the last few months.
The left-hander ended the limited-overs tournament as the top run-scorer for SA A on 332 in six innings, with one hundred and two fifties at an average of 110.66 and a strike-rate of 93.25.
That earned him a recall for the one-off ODI against Ireland and the five-game Australia series that kicks off in Centurion on Friday (1.30pm start). Miller missed out in the run-fest against Ireland in Benoni last Sunday, scoring 14 off 16 balls before getting an edge to Kevin O’Brien in going for a big drive outside off.
Miller’s fellow middle-order men, JP Duminy and Farhaan Behardien, both weighed in with half-centuries at better than a run-a-ball, so the 27-year-old would want to make a more sizable contribution in Friday’s opener against the world’s top-ranked ODI side at SuperSport Park.
With captain AB de Villiers injured, Miller will have a full series to prove his worth ahead of the Sri Lanka series early next year. De Villiers will be back by then, and Miller is likely to be the one to make way as Duminy and Behardien is ahead in the queue.
But if he can reproduce the performances from the recent SA A tour Down Under and increase his current average of 34.58, Miller could remain in contention all the way to the ICC Champions Trophy in England next June.
And, looking at the depleted Australian attack – where there are largely unheralded figures such as John Hastings, Daniel Worrall and Scott Boland – will it be “Miller Time” again?
@ashfakmohamed
Independent Media