David Miller can carve a path for South Africa to be World Champions

South Africa have always been one of the strong outfits in world cricket.  Several greats of the game like Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn, and many more have featured for the country. The team has advanced to the knockouts of the ICC tournaments on several occasions but never managed to win the coveted trophy. They never made it to the finals of the ICC events and that labeled the team as ‘chokers’. South Africa have played eight ODI World Cups and made it to the semi-finals on four occasions before exiting. 1999 World Cup might have been their best shot as they played a draw in a close contest against Australia in the semi-final but the rules back then handed Australia a spot in the final. 

David Miller was the most experienced player on the team who toured India for a T20I series recently. He has played 87 innings and scored 1882 T20I runs at 32.44 at a strike rate of 141.71. In terms of strike rate, only Heinrich Klassen is ahead of him with 143.91 in T20Is while only Quinton de Kock and Rassie van der Dussen have a better average than him. The World Cup will be played in Australia and so the pitches will offer pace and bounce for sure. Miller is good on the back foot and also he enjoys a good record against fast bowlers. The left-handed aggressor has 1238 runs in the shortest format while facing pacers with a strike rate of 151 will be crucial in Australia. 

Miller’s recent form in the IPL 2022 was a display of what he can achieve with his ability to play aerial strokes at will and find the sweet spot of the bat more often. 2022 turned out to be the best season for Miller as he played a key role for Gujarat Titans scoring 481 runs from 16 matches at 68.71 and a strike rate of 142.73. He played a key role in the lower middle order and also provided some hitting at the back end for the team. He and Hardik Pandya scored a major share of runs for the team and Miller also displayed his ability to accomplish tough chases. With Miller in the squad, big targets also look achievable even if the team loses early wickets. 

The South African left-hander batsman usually struggles against spin. However, he changed it this time around scoring 206 runs at an average of 103 and a strike rate of 145.1 against spinners in IPL 2022. This transformation of handling the slow bowlers well will be quite handy in the World Cup. South Africa will play some matches against teams with quality spin attacks and in such cases, the team can rely on Miller to score runs and tackle the opposition spinners very well. He continued his terrific form in the recent series against India and South Africa. He was middling the ball regularly and was in good touch. He also scored a half-century in the series. 

It has been a dream for a long time for the South African team and their fans to win a World Cup Trophy. The team already have a quality bowling attack and will need their batting to step up. David Miller will play a key role with his experience and the terrific form he is going through currently in their World Cup journey.