Time for Miller to prove his worth
● To some, David Miller is an enigma; an unexplained force of nature that elicits chants when he strides to the crease and fleetingly excites. For others, he fails to deliver when he’s supposed to.
But for national convenor of selectors Linda Zondi, Miller is a fully functional batsman who’s finally broken out of the finisher stereotype.
There was evidence of this in the recently completed limited-overs tour of Australia where in the second and third ODIs Miller stemmed top-order collapses.
In the second game at the Adelaide Oval, he wasn’t able to see out the chase of a middling total even though he scored 51, but in the third match at the Bellerive Oval (Blundstone Arena) he compiled the modern ODI middle-order ton.
Coming in at 55/3, he consolidated with captain Faf du Plessis, survived a leg before scare on 41 and accelerated in a manner hardly witnessed in Australia.
Coming full circle
SA ransacked 174 runs in the last 15 overs to put the game beyond Australia’s reach.
The key for Miller, whose place in the team hasn’t gone without question despite 112 ODIs, is converting starts and completing chases consistently.
Zondi is in no doubt the 29-year-old Maritzburg College product is close to coming full circle. “For a guy who’s played more than a 100 ODIs, we shouldn’t even be discussing the fact that Miller should be playing such games. What we should be discussing is how he should be playing like that often because we back him,” Zondi said.
“The issue is whether he can be consistent and produce these kind of innings on a regular basis — instead of coming in late and trying to slog. We’ve always been hoping that David can come in with us four or five down and build an innings and score big runs. He’s capable and we know he’s capable and we hope he can produce consistently.”
Three of Miller’s five ODI tons have come in the past two years and 25 ODIs. They also came when the side was in need of runs and in that same period, he’s collected three 50s.
The blot in this copybook were the nine games against India and Sri Lanka this year where he managed 191 runs at 21.33.
His highest score was 51 in Pallekelle, highlighting a susceptibility against spin.
This was apparent in the India series where he was a senior batsman who went missing in action. Zondi agreed that his spin weakness is something he still needs to work on. The 10-match ODI span against Pakistan and Sri Lanka next year provides the perfect platform to sharpen his game.
In next year’s World Cup all teams will face each other once with the top four going to the semifinals.
“Every batsman has a weakness and there’s no perfect player. We’ve had difficult series against India and Sri Lanka and everyone now is being labelled a bad player of spin. Miller has struggled against spin but a player of his experience will not only know their game well, but will be able to adjust,” Zondi said.
“David needs to make sure that he backs himself when he plays spin because in England, teams will at least have two spinners. Spin has been an issue we know about — and David knows about it. It’s a matter of backing himself and being confident. The matter is being addressed.”