Miller moves into senior role

Cape Town - Proteas batsman David Miller says moving into a senior role has helped him mature as a player, as the three-match T20 series against Sri Lanka gets underway this week.

Miller, 27, has now recovered from his calf strain, which left him out of the majority of the domestic T20 Challenge, and is ready to get back into action in the green and gold.

The Proteas have decided to rest a number of their senior players who took part in their whitewash 3-0 Test series victory over Sri Lanka for the first two T20Is.

They have called up Theunis de Bruyn, Reeza Hendricks, Lungi Ngidi‚ Heino Kuhn‚ Mangaliso Mosehle‚ Dane Paterson and Jon-Jon Smuts to the T20 squad following their impressive performances in the domestic T20 Challenge.

Miller, who has been with the Proteas limited-overs set-up since 2010, is excited to get back to playing cricket and share some wisdom among the six new caps.

"It's been pretty exciting," said Miller.

"There's a lot of new caps, they've done really well in the domestic format. They all deserve to be here and get a chance to play for their country."

Miller, who captained the Kings XI Punjab in six IPL games last year, backed Farhaan Behardien on his interim position as skipper for the first two matches against Sri Lanka.

"Fudgie (Behardien) is captaining and it's a huge honour and privilege for him," said Miller.

"We're right behind him and I feel that I can add a lot of value even if I am not the captain.

"So I just want to keep try adding value with the youngsters - learning from them and also being an example, as a senior player.

"There's been a process the last few years of my game, I feel like I've grown and learnt a lot. But I'm looking really forward to getting back this week."

The first T20 between the Proteas and Sri Lanka gets underway on Friday at Centurion (18:00 SA time).