Blazing bat joins Canes
South African dasher Miller on board with Hobart for BBL
SOUTH African superstar David Miller will return to the scene of his highest one-day international score for this year’s BBL in a massive coup for the competition.
Miller, who cracked 13 boundaries and four sixes in his 139 against Australia last November at Blundstone Arena — and shared a recordbreaking stand with his captain Faf du Plessis — has joined the Hurricanes as an import replacement for cult star Jofra Archer.
It is a strategic move from Hobart to add some experience to the batting order, given skipper Matthew Wade will miss the start of the tournament on Test duties and Ben McDermott could be absent in the New Year with the one day team.
One of world cricket’s most explosive hitters, Miller will only be available for the roster season but the Hurricanes remain on the search for an additional pace bowling import for the finals should they qualify.
The 30-year-old boasts a T20 international strike-rate of 140 from 72 appearances, while he has also played 126 ODI’s for his country. He is one of three South Africans who will feature in BBL|09, joining AB de Villiers (Brisbane Heat) and Dale Steyn (Melbourne Stars).
“We’re delighted to be able to secure his signature, he’s an immensely experienced T20 player, he’s played nearly 300 T20s around the world and brings some explosive batting and great fielding to our team,” Cricket Tasmania chief Nick Cummins said.
“He is available for the whole home and away season, but not finals.
“But that actually fits in with our strategy in that we are likely to lose Wade and then possibly McDermott for some ections of the season.
“We need to make sure that we’ve still got strong batting strength.
“We’ve concentrated on bowlers previously as our bowling stocks have started to develop, but the coach is confident with the rise of the likes of Riley Meredith, Tom Rodgers, David Moody, as well as the experience of Jimmy Faulkner, that we’ve got some good pace bowling options.
“With Wadey playing for Australia during the Test summer and then McDermott potentially playing one day cricket, we may be lacking a little bit of experience in our batting order this year so we want to address that.”