Abu Dhabi, Nov 24: South Africa’s go-to man in pressure situations, David Miller believes that as captain Hardik Pandya can infuse much needed fearlessness into India’s T20 set-up with his exemplary clarity of mind and work ethic.
Hardik is seen as the leader of the Indian team at the 2024 T20 World Cup with current skipper Rohit Sharma not expected to carry on in the shortest format for another two years.
Miller, who has finally realised his rich potential and became one of the best finishers in the game over the last couple of years, said Hardik had played a crucial role in steering Gujarat Titans to the title on their IPL debut.
“Just playing under him in the IPL, I feel he is a natural leader, People follow him. He allows you to play the way that you feel like you can. He is very inclusive as a leader, he wants everyone to be close to each other,” the South African said.
“At the same time, he is clear with discipline. He has got a lot of good attributes of a leader.
“In IPL he got better and better as the season progressed and I see him doing that (with the Indian team as well),” Miller said.
India are in desperate need for a change in mindset, especially in the powerplay. Can Hardik effect that change and let the players not worry about fear of failure? “Yes. He will make the players a lot better in the mindset. 100 percent. He allows the guys to do what they want to do which is important,” said Miller.
With so much cricket taking place around the world, a modern day cricketer like Miller might not find time to reflect on his past mistakes.
However, the southpaw spent a lot of time thinking about South Africa’s sudden elimination from the T20 World Cup in Australia.
Having beaten India in their group, South Africa were looking strong but an unexpected loss to the Netherlands ended in another heartbreak for the perennial underachievers in international cricket.
“Yes I did (reflect on the loss). Sometimes it is difficult to process things like that. At end of the day, I still feel we were one of the stronger teams in the competition.
“There were many other upsets as well, it was not only us. It comes down to the last game and unfortunately for us, we needed to win and we couldn’t. That is the beauty and humility of cricket. Obviously very disappointed with that result,” he said. (PTI)
