Interview with David Miller: "I do not agree with Bangar, my bad form had nothing to do with captaincy"

David Miller shot to fame when he thumped 101* off 38 balls (playing for Kings XI Punjab) against Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2013. Though he had made his international debut in 2010, it wasn’t until this explosive innings that he was hailed as one of the most destructive batsmen in the world. After that he became a regular member of South Africa’s limited-overs team and impressed everyone by scoring 324 runs in the World Cup 2015 at a robust average of 64.80.

But after the tournament, he lost his form. The last one year hasn’t been particularly rosy for the 26-year-old batsman, though he is still regarded as a vital cog of the Proteas’ batting line-up in limited-overs. He was appointed captain of the Kings XI Punjab team ahead of the IPL 2016, but due to his patchy form and the team’s underwhelming showing, he was removed from the captaincy in the middle of the tournament and was replaced by Murali Vijay.

In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda, Miller talked about Kings XI Punjab’s shoddy performance, his poor form, captaincy, among many others things. Here are the excerpts from the conversation:

How do you asses Kings XI Punjab’s performance in this IPL?

The fact that we are at the bottom of the points table tells the whole story. As a team, we have not performed to our potential. Also, we lost a few close matches which didn’t help matters; the 1-run loss against RCB in particular thwarted the momentum. In the T20 format, momentum is eminently pivotal. If we had managed to win those close matches, who knows, we might have been among the top 4 teams.

Your personal form hasn’t been satisfactory either…

Yeah, I agree that I’m going through a lean patch. Things aren’t going the way I want to. Every cricketer goes through such phases and I hope to bounce back soon.

Is it shot selection, technical deficiency or any other reason behind your poor form?

One can pinpoint a lot of factors when things aren’t hunky-dory. I don’t think there’s any major technical issue with my batting, although I would sit back after the tournament and try to analyse how I can improve my batting. There are certain areas I’m looking to work on. Also, T20s are a different kettle of fish. At times, one has to go hammer and tongs right from the first ball, especially if you are the middle-order batsman, and that can affect the quality of your shot making. So I wouldn’t dwell too much on that.

Kings XI Punjab’s coach Sanjay Bangar recently said that you were stripped of the captaincy because it (captaincy) was adversely affecting your form…

That is certainly not true. I do not agree with Bangar here. My bad form has nothing to do with captaincy.

So did you enjoy captaincy?

Yeah. I only captained in a few matches but I really enjoyed the whole experience. Obviously, I am yet to explore more facets of captaincy, but it was a great feeling being the captain and chalking out strategies.

Does the lack of a solid batsman in the middle-order who can bat through the innings a reason behind your team’s dismal performance? Glenn Maxwell and you are both flamboyant batsmen who take on bowlers right from the word go.

See, it is a collective failure. In the past, Maxwell and I have built innings. It’s just that we both hit a lean patch at the same time and that obviously affected the team’s overall performance.

South Africa’s performance in the World T20 2016 wasn’t up to scratch.

It was disappointing not to make it to the semi-finals of the World T20 this year despite our team being very good. You obviously expect a team which has players like Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Quinton de Kock and Dale Steyn to do spectacularly well but unfortunately, it wasn’t to be.

How do you rate the current South African team?

I think South Africa is an extremely balanced side at the moment. Amla, De Villiers and Steyn are world-class performances and have oodles of experience. The youngsters like De Kock and Kagiso Rabada are also coming up through the ranks and doing exceedingly well. South Africa has been among the top three teams in international cricket in all three formats of the game the last 10 years. This consistency speaks volumes about the quality of our players.