David Miller played only a game in last year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) but Rajasthan Royals (RR) Director of Cricket, Kumar Sangakkara knows how dangerous the South Africa swashbuckling batsman can be in the shortest format. He has 1850 runs in 80 IPL games averaging a decent 33.63 including 1 ton and 9 fifties.
David Miller last week delivered a magnificent exhibition of hitting by plundering an unbeaten 85 off 45 balls (5 fours, 7 sixes) to help South Africa recover from 65 for seven against Pakistan in the third T20I.
David Miller Is A Left-Handed Finisher And Fantastic Player Having Ability To Punish Bowling Attack: Kumar Sangakkara
The South Africa batsman David Miller is famous for his power-hitting but still wasn’t able to find his name in the star-studded Rajasthan Royals’ playing XI in IPL 2020 except a game where he failed to score.
Kumar Sangakkara said David Miller has all the “weapons” to become one of the Rajasthan Royals’ important batsmen hinting that David Miller will get his fair share of chances in this year’s IPL.
“Well, I think David Miller is a fantastic player. The left-hander finisher. He has the ability to punish the attack. He had very good innings in the last T20 against Pakistan where he brought South Africa out of the very difficult situation,” said Sangakkara in a virtual press conference on Friday.
“So he has all the weapons to become very important batsmen for us in the middle to death period. And at the same time, he is a great guy with great character and it’s wonderful to have around in a team. So he brings a lot to us in terms of advantage,” he further said.
“So when he does get a chance he will be able to really good for RR. You can’t really guarantee performances but if you follow the process the result will follow,” Sangakkara added.
Rajasthan Royals bought South African all-rounder Chris Morris for Rs 16.25 crore, making the all-rounder the most expensive player at an IPL auction on Thursday. Kumar Sangakkara though agreed that the price of Chris Morris was on the higher side, he was happy to have the South Africa all-rounder for his ability to finish the games with the bat.
“We’re also glad to get Chris Morris with us simply for what he brings to the side, both with the bat and ball. With the ball especially, his numbers across the IPLs are really good and his ability to finish games with the bat down the order is useful,” said Sangakkara in a statement.
“Yes the price was on the higher side, but we’re looking for a very specific role with Chris and really happy to have someone like him in our squad,” he added.
India all-rounder Shivam Dube was also picked by Rajasthan Royals for Rs 4.4 crore during the auction held at Chennai. Kumar Sangakkara, the former Sri Lanka skipper said that the side was specifically looking for someone like Shivam Dube for the middle-order spot.
“It was an exciting auction. From our point of view, we were targeting certain players and we’re happy to get our targets. We were looking at Shivam Dube for that middle-order spot in our batting line-up and finally got him,” said Sangakkara.
“We’re excited to have picked up some talented Indian youngsters, all of whom add different dimensions to our squad. As a team, we’re delighted with the targets we were able to get and looking forward to working with the squad during the IPL now,” he added.
Rajasthan Royals went into the auction with a total of nine vacancies in their squad and a purse of Rs 37.85 crore. They finished the auction with eight signings. The franchise created history as they signed Chris Morris for a whopping price of Rs 16.25 which made him the most expensive player in the history of IPL auction. The Royals signed another all-rounder in Shivam Dube for Rs 4.40 crore which would help them in stabilizing the middle order.
The Rajasthan-based outfit further bought Bangladesh pacer, Mustafizur Rahman, for Rs 1 crore. The experienced left-arm pacer would provide some much-needed solidity to the Rajasthan Royals’ fast-bowling line-up including the likes of Jofra Archer, Kartik Tyagi, Andrew Tye, and Jaydev Unadkat.
Their third and last overseas signing was their former player and England batsman Liam Livingstone. The other signings were – Chetan Sakariya (INR 1.20 Cr), KC Cariappa (INR 20 L), Kuldip Yadav (INR 20 L), Akash Singh (INR 20 L)