The 500 T20s club, which already has allrounders Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Shoaib Malik, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell, has just got its sixth member. The new entrant, a specialist batter, is David Miller, the first South African to reach the milestone – during his stint with Barbados Royals in the ongoing CPL.
In the following conversation, Miller talks in depth about what he has learned about his own game, the pain and disappointment of losing the 2024 T20 World Cup final to India, and his best T20 innings.
You’re the sixth player overall, but the first South African and the first specialist batter to play 500 T20s. It must be a proud moment for you?
It’s a really proud moment. When I look at all those years back when I first started, I never imagined to be playing this amount of games, so it’s a special milestone. I suppose, as a cliché, it’s just another game, but it’s a really cool achievement.
You started as a 19-year-old in 2008 around the time the IPL started. Can you list out a few turning points and the lessons you have learned in these 16 years?
I’ve always jokingly said when you first start playing professional cricket, you are young, your body’s working so well that you don’t have to warm up. Sleep’s not that important. At the younger ages, you are kind of working out your game and not really worrying about your body. As the tides turn, you understand your game a lot better, but now you’ve gotta actually work at your body (laughs). Those kinds of things have come into my game now where I take my body a little bit more seriously, finding ways to stay fit and flexible and making sure the body’s good to stay on the park.
“I definitely think with this World Cup, we did some special things and we have changed a lot of mindsets in South Africa”
As for turning points, I remember starting at the IPL when I was 21 [in 2011]. I was very fortunate to be at Kings XI [Punjab] with Adam Gilchrist as captain. Growing up, I would wake up in the early hours, two-three in the morning, and watch Australia play. I always loved watching Gilchrist, so to have him as my captain was a dream come true. Just understanding how he operates, what kind of leader he was – a very inclusive leader. And obviously the skill on the field was great, so I learned a lot of things from him.
Funnily, he tore both hamstrings in the third year, and I managed to get a few games. That’s when I scored that hundred against RCB [in 2013]. That was probably the turning point in my career. I had already played for South Africa but wasn’t really in the picture. It brought a lot attention to me at that stage. Through the years, your career goes through ebbs and flows and you constantly keep learning, adapting and trying to get better.
When Jason Gilliespie was with Kings XI, he said this about you: “What struck me was his bat speed and timing, which worked together so well for power-hitting.” Has that bat speed come naturally to you and has anything changed?
Once you have it [bat speed], you have got it. For me, it’s about rhythm, so if I haven’t played cricket or if I’m struggling a bit, I find my rhythm’s a little bit out, my tempo’s out, so it’s not necessarily the bat speed. It’s just about getting your timing right: the impact of the ball, hands, body, head, all those kinds of things moving in one direction.
At a younger age, I really did work hard at power-hitting, did a lot [of work] with Graham Ford [at Dolphins]. Lance Klusener came in and worked with a lot of us youngsters at that stage. It was really nice to have such an experienced player – someone that’s done it at the highest level – to come and give us his knowledge.
Miller on his way to 94 not out off 51 balls against CSK in 2022, which he called “probably my most special knock”
© BCCI
Has power-hitting been the biggest change in T20 cricket?
I wouldn’t say power-hitting [has been the biggest change]. For me, it’s more a mindset [change]. The mindset of cricketers has changed massively, obviously due to T20 and just the skill level of everyone coming through. The youngsters now have the confidence to just play their game freely. That’s probably been the big change. Back in the day they always had power-hitters, but 1727319197 it’s more a mindset of we all are buying into what we are doing here. It allows players to play a lot more freely.
What’s been the biggest improvement in your batting?
Understanding that failure is a part of the game. Accepting the fact that you are always going to get criticism – whether you do well or bad. So it’s just about making sure you stick to your processes and that your journey is very different to a lot of other players. Sometimes following someone [else’s] path is not always the right way.
It’s just about grabbing moments and ideas from certain players and coaches and adapting and adding to your strengths. And probably just understanding what my strengths are. I really think that as you get older, you understand your game a lot better. You think more clearly under pressure. Success in this game is never guaranteed, so you can have all the experience and knowledge, but you still got to produce it, right? So, for me, it’s just being a lot clearer in those moments. It gives you a better chance to succeed and I feel like I’m a lot clearer under pressure.
What are the fundamentals of being a good finisher?
Just what I mentioned now – it’s making sure that you are clear under pressure, and know exactly what is happening on the scoreboard. For me, it’s about making sure I give myself the best chance, staying in the contest the whole time and really staying busy, looking to score strong shots.
Then, match-ups is massive. If it’s your match-up, you have to be bold and courageous and really take the game away in that moment. If you sniff that moment, you have to take it down. There’s been so many great finishers. I have really enjoyed looking at the way [MS] Dhoni plays. It’s not all about sixes and fours, he gets a lot of twos. But the biggest thing for me is just thinking clearly under pressure.
“I almost just didn’t want to walk off the field. I wanted to have another go because [I was thinking]: come on, I don’t feel out. It’s a bit cruel, but such is life”
Miller on how he felt after being dismissed in the 2024 T20 World Cup final
About two years ago when you were in great form, Dale Steyn said that your six-hitting was down to your confidence rather than the subtle change in your technique as suggested at the time by your dad. Do you agree with Dale?
Definitely. Confidence is a big thing and as quickly as you can get confidence, you can also lose it. So that’s why I say just sticking to your processes and falling back on what you know has worked, and, really just believing that is the process. Because under pressure you can lose your mind. Your thoughts go everywhere. So it’s about really making sure you are disciplined in whatever has worked and trusting and believing that that’s the way that has worked in the past, so it’s definitely going to continue working in the future.
And I suppose tweaking things here and there in the technique every now and again: sometimes I fall over, sometimes I’ve got to be more still – all these little check points you have to stay in tune with.
What was that subtle change in technique your dad was talking about?
Look, it’s a very small thing. I never really felt like I had an issue against spin, but in the IPL [at one point], this idea that I couldn’t play spin went crazy and it was driving my head in because I really felt like [while] I wasn’t taking spinners down, I was most certainly not getting stuck against spin. I looked at my my strike rates and I wasn’t too far off many others, but I was just better against pace bowlers. I felt I needed to improve, otherwise people would continually say I can’t play spin.
I felt like I just needed to change a few things. Basically, I was pressing and getting on the front foot a lot and getting stuck between lengths. I found that I lost a lot of power by pressing on my front foot and committing, so I decided to hold my movements as long as possible and play off the back foot as much as I could. I felt it helped me a lot – actually, my power came back, because every time the bowler overpitched the ball and I’m on the back foot, I can always still get forward and pop him over his head for six.
So it was more the transfer of weight and everything was so much more in sync. It was just playing more on the back foot than the front foot, really. It’s pretty simple but [takes] a long time to understand (laughs).
At the CPL, Barbados is your home ground. But losing the T20 World Cup final on that ground won’t be easy to forget. Have you stopped thinking about your dismissal in the final over of the match?
No. I have really struggled, to be honest with you. Getting so close [to winning] and just having such a great campaign as a team – we fought really hard, we played competitive cricket, and we were always in the mix. But sport is not fair for everyone – there’s always a winner and a loser. There’s been some brutal situations in the past with many different sports, and I suppose that was just probably one of them as well.
Miller and his wife process the World Cup loss: “I felt like I had let the country down, I had let myself and my team-mates down. It’s quite a difficult moment to unwrap”
Gareth Copley / © Getty Images
If you had to play that delivery again, you wouldn’t have done anything differently, would you?
No, I wouldn’t have, other than maybe getting a little bit better contact. I wasn’t actually expecting a full toss like that. I always do have a full toss in mind, but it caught me a little off guard and I got it just slightly wrong. But it was a little breeze that was kind of coming across us, not necessarily into us, more slightly in and across. So yeah (takes a deep breath), the margins are so small. It was really frustrating. I actually thought I had enough on it. I knew it was going to be tight. You kind of get that feeling as soon as you hit it, you know it’s going to be… I thought I had enough, but yeah, the rest is history.
I suppose with these kinds of situations, it’s about how you get yourself back up eventually and what you learn from it. Sometimes there’s not anything you can do differently. It’s just they played better cricket on the day, or it was unlucky and the next time that kind of thing goes our way. I’m quite a simple-thinking guy. I don’t really want to overthink it. Hopefully I get myself into a position like that again in the future.
On the last ball of the 18th over, Keshav Maharaj, the No. 8 batter, took a single. In hindsight, would you have declined that single, given four runs came off the next over, bowled by Arshdeep Singh?
Hmm… I have played with Keshav for a long time – since I was 11 years old. He can hold a bat. In that situation, there was still a bit to do [South Africa needed 20 runs from the last two overs], so to try and hog the strike on a wicket like that, it had obviously crossed my mind, but I backed my boy Kesh. He can hold a bat and get off strike and he can hit boundaries. Unfortunately the roll of the dice was not in our favour and we will definitely get into another such position in the future.
No doubt you do the difficult job of being a finisher time and again and it sometimes ends in disappointment. After Suryakumar Yadav took the catch to dismiss you, what was your first emotion?
Pretty hard to explain, but yeah, I suppose anger is probably one of them. Frustration, disappointment, failure, all these negative things come into your head. I watch a lot of different sports and they always talk about the moment to win the game. And I suppose that was the moment to win the game.
“I do find great joy in [working] behind the scenes, like being a leader without being a captain, helping youngsters, figuring out where the team’s at and what’s the mojo”
And it wasn’t to be for me. I took it pretty hard. I felt like I had let the country down, I had let myself and my team-mates down. It’s quite a difficult moment to unwrap. It was a very hollow feeling. I almost just didn’t want to walk off the field. I wanted to have another go because [I was thinking]: come on, I don’t feel out. It’s a bit cruel, but such is life. There’s many other people, sportsmen that have had really tough moments to try and get over and I’m not the only person that it’s ever happened to.
How do you pick yourself up and come back to keep doing that as a finisher?
I’m quite a simple-thinking guy. I want to be objective in my thinking, try and keep my thinking quite level. I don’t want to go too high or too low. It’s just about taking the punches when they come and regathering. Like I said, I probably haven’t gotten over it just yet. Yeah, I do play it back in my head. I was at MLC [Major League Cricket in the USA] afterwards and that was quite hard to get myself back up for another tournament straight after that [World Cup final defeat].
Fortunately I had a month off after that at home where I could spend some time with my wife. I actually was at home for the first time in the year after six-seven months away. It was nice to get back to a bit of simple normality – sleep in my own bed, connect with my wife, go for walks, runs, exercise. I feel the normal things in life are probably more important than a game of cricket. I really do thank cricket for everything it has given me but there is a lot more to life than just that. So to get caught up in that little moment is tough, but time does move on.
What’s the best T20 innings you have played so far?
Like I said, a turning point in my career was the hundred against RCB. Then I got the hundred against Bangladesh [in 2017], which I really enjoyed at that time. Those two hundreds were pretty, pretty special. I got 80 or 90 not out against Chennai [Super Kings] for Gujarat Titans a couple years ago. We were in a bit of a sticky situation, three or four down chasing 190 or 180 whatever [Titans were 16 for 3 chasing 170]. We ended up winning the game and, for me, it was probably my most special knock. I batted really nicely, felt good, I was moving well and it all worked out.
Miller has captained Royals in the CPL and the SA20. While he doesn’t expect to get the South Africa captaincy, he says, “I try to lead in different ways and I really enjoy it”
Randy Brooks / © CPL T20/Getty Images
Who would you rank as the top three finishers in T20 cricket?
I didn’t really watch much of [Michael] Bevan, but I heard he was absolutely incredible, so probably would have to stick him in there. I’d probably say Dhoni and Klusener and Mark Boucher. Boucher finished a lot of games for South Africa. I know he batted at six or seven and being a wicketkeeper, but I’ve happened to work with him quite a lot. I really enjoy his cricketing brain and how he thinks.
Do you think South Africa have managed to stay in sync with the international game, or are there areas in which they still need develop more?
It’s just incredible how South Africa continually produces cricketers. We’ve got a very strong school system and they keep producing amazing cricketers. In terms of talent and depth, we always will be strong. In time, I definitely think with this World Cup [the 2024 T20 World Cup], we did some special things and we have changed a lot of mindsets in South Africa. It takes a lot to win a World Cup. There’s so many different variables. As I mentioned earlier, for me, mindset is massive. Definitely, we will get a World Cup, that’s for sure. Once it happens, the flood gates will open.
But South Africa is in a good place. We have had a fantastic team in the last couple of years. Continuity is big in cricket. In the last couple of years we have done it – it’s just playing the same team. There’s always going to be guys that are not going to do well in a certain moment, but you have to pick your match-winners and stick with that. Combinations become so much better and the relationship between the team becomes stronger. I do believe that’s the key to success.
You’re 35. The next T20 World is two years away. Are you looking forward to playing in it?
I have spoken to Rob Walters [South Africa’s white-ball coach] about it. At this stage, I’m just going year by year and assessing where my cricket’s on a yearly basis. I don’t want to get too far ahead. I would love to play cricket for as long as I can. At this stage, yes, I’m looking forward to it, but we’ll just see how we go along the way.
“It was just so nice to wake up in the morning and go make a coffee, open my own fridge. These are simple things, but as a player travelling around [the world], you kind of miss these things”
You have captained Royals in the CPL and the SA20. If an opportunity comes along the way, are you looking forward to captaining South Africa as well?
I have captained South Africa [in seven white-ball games] and I absolutely loved it, but I do believe Aiden Markram is doing a fantastic job in that department. He’s a natural leader and I love playing under him. If it comes around, I’ll definitely take it, but it’s not something I think will come my way right now. It’s pretty settled in. I do find great joy in [working] behind the scenes, like being a leader without being a captain, helping youngsters, figuring out where the team’s at and what’s the mojo. I try to lead in different ways and I really enjoy it.
People talk about playing 100 Tests and the toil that goes into it. But playing 500 T20s must also be demanding. Can you talk about the mental and physical toll it has taken on you?
It’s very taxing and draining. It’s a fantastic opportunity to travel the world and get paid for it. And it sounds all flashy and great, but we are all human and I personally enjoy my hometown and friends, my family, being close to them. This year has been long, but before each year, I break down the schedule and mentally tune in. I do believe I need to know what’s ahead instead of just going like last.minute.com.
I don’t want to be giving half measures to any team I play for. I want to be going 100% and winning as many games and trying to make a difference in the unit. So it definitely is taxing and demanding. I was just saying to my wife the other day that we were at home for that month and it was just so nice to wake up in the morning and go make a coffee, open my own fridge. These are simple things, but as a player travelling around [the world], you kind of miss these things. It was really cool to have that downtime and I’m looking forward to getting that again at some stage.
It’s just about making sure that when you’re feeling down, whatever the case is, you’re communicating. Bottling things in is not the way forward. You need to actually get it all out and chat to someone that you trust, whether it’s your wife or a psychologist or whoever. Get it off your chest because it is important. It can be tough, it can be very lonely.
Finally, in the 500 club, who do you think is the Ultimate T20 player?
That’s quite a tough question. Because all the guys are match-winners in their own right and have achieved so much. I’ve just always enjoyed Chris Gayle – the way he is just so strong and he’s a force. To have achieved however many hundreds he has scored in T20 and what he has done is just exceptional, so I’d probably go with the big Universe Boss.
Believe it or not, the Universe Boss hasn’t played 500 T20s. Any other picks?
Wow, he hasn’t? I thought he was on about 700 (laughs). I’ve played with all of them and they are all very good, so I’m going with all five of them.
Nagraj Gollapudi is news editor at ESPNcricinfo
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
