IPL 2022: David Miller back? Protea feels ‘backed’ at Gujarat Titans

David Miller has so far scored 196 runs in six games of IPL 2022 at a whopping strike rate of above 160 and average of 96.50. His 94-run knock against the Chennai Super Kings on Sunday helped Gujarat Titans secure their fifth win of the season and now they sit on top of the points table. 

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Against CSK, Miller came into bat when the Titans were struggling at 16 for 3 and the asking rate had climbed past 9.50. The Protea came in, knocked the spinners around before combining with stand-in skipper Rashid Khan to go after the seamers in the death. The two stitched a 70-run partnership to help Gujarat chase 170 runs with one ball to spare. 

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Miller has finally come to the scene after a quiet few years. In the last two IPL seasons, he represented the Rajasthan Royals. With the team stacked with overseas players like Steven Smith, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Jofra Archer, he got only one game in 2020. Next year, the South African scored 124 runs at a strike rate of 109.73. In 2019, he had 213 runs against his name and in 2018 and 2017, Miller did not even cross 100 runs. 

After peaking in IPL 2013 and 2014 seasons, David Miller’s form only dropped. 

However, this season, the 32-year-old is playing a key role in Gujarat Titans’ middle-order batting. During his 51-ball stay against CSK, he hit eight boundaries and six maximums. 

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“The last two-three-four years I have been playing really nice cricket, feeling positive and I have been scoring nice personally, back at home, overseas, and so on, unfortunately the last four-five years, I haven’t really played as much IPL cricket as I would have liked to,” Miller said at the post-match media interaction.

He believes that the Gujarat Titans have backed him completely, which apparently his former sides Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals failed to do. 

“… the nature of the game, tournament (is such that) there are only four overseas (players) and other overseas players are always going to miss out and I sort of found myself in between a place where I have been in and out of Kings XI (Punjab Kings) and then Rajasthan.

“I played some decent games there but I felt like I couldn’t get going and it has been encouraging to be part of Gujarat Titans and just know I am 100 per cent backed, and have a really nice environment, enjoy each other’s success, that goes a long way in doing well, but more importantly it is nice to play every game,” he added.