IPL 2018: Dale Steyn amused to see star batsman not making it to the KXIP lineup

South African speedster Dale Steyn is not in action in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League. But the pacer is certainly keeping up with the tournament and is closely following the league. Recently, he took to micro blogging site Twitter to express his amusement at the exclusion of a big name from the Kings XI Punjab playing eleven.

The KXIP camp took on the Royal Challengers Bangalore in a home game in Indore. Unfortunately for them, they did not have the services of their star performer Mujeeb Rahman for the match. With Mujeeb being unfit, Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis made a comeback to the side. Dale Steyn certainly believed that David Miller should have come in the side.

Steyn, through his tweet, expressed empathy for his South African teammate. Miller has always been an integral part of the Kings XI Punjab lineup. The South African batsman, however, has got only two matches to play this season. His previous outing in the IPL this year was against the Delhi Daredevils in Delhi on April 23. He had scored a decent 26 in the match.

Here is what Dale Steyn tweeted:

“So why isn’t Miller getting a game? #justaskingforafriend,” Dale Steyn asked in his tweet.

Analyzing the numbers

When seen at a microscopic level, the possible cause for the exclusion of Miller from the side could be his dwindling reputation in the camp. Miller, who was once the star of the lineup, has had two very quiet seasons prior to the ongoing edition of the IPL. In the 2017 edition, he averaged under 28 with the bat and had mustered 83 runs in 5 matches.

In the 2016 season, he played 14 matches and could only aggregate 161 runs. Furthermore, his recent form in the international cricket has not been great either. He had returned with scores of 9, 5, and 24 in the three matches that he had played against India in the T20I series in South Africa prior to the IPL 2018.

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