David Miller retained by Kings XI Punjab

David Miller, the South Africa middle-order batsman, has been retained by Kings XI Punjab ahead of the fifth season of the IPL, and given a two-year contract. Miller had joined Kings XI as a replacement for Dimitri Mascarenhas last season but did not play a game. He has been on the fringes of the South Africa ODI and Twenty20 side, and scored a half-century against Australia in the October 2011 series.

Teams who signed replacement players last season have first rights to their services this season, provided they can come to an agreement with the player on the price. Had Miller not been retained by Kings XI he would have gone into the mix for the February 4 auction. Kings XI sold Dinesh Karthik to the Mumbai Indians earlier in the transfer window, which closed on January 20, and have brought in R Sathish and Miller to bolster the batting.

Miller has never played an IPL match, but averages 31.30 in Twenty20s for his South African franchise the Dolphins with a strike-rate of 127.75. English county Durham signed him to play in the 2011 Friends Life t20, and he scored 212 runs at an average of 26.50.

After being drafted into the South Africa team as a 20 year old in 2010, Miller was left out of the squad for the 2011 World Cup. He received a recall for the home ODIs and Twenty20 internationals against Australia, but despite his half-century did not even figure in the squad for the series against Sri Lanka.