At 36, David Miller is closer to the end of his career than the beginning. He's South Africa's oldest player at the T20 World Cup. The youngest, 19-year-old Kwena Maphaka, is almost half his age. But Miller's texting technique is right up there with the kids'...

"On way down

"Apologies

"Can you order me a coffee and for you if you want?

"I'll pay for it now when I get down"

If you're old enough - north of 36, or should that be south? - you will have noticed that while Miller knows how to deploy an apostrophe, there isn't a single full stop in those bursts of words. And why send it all in one message when you can do it in four separate bursts?

Whatever. Let's be grateful Miller has the good manners to apologise for being less than 10 minutes late for an interview in the cafe of South Africa's hotel in Ahmedabad. He does, after all, belong to a class of people who think nothing of making reporters wait for hours, days, weeks, months, sometimes years. Or cancel already agreed interviews without explanation. Or refuse to speak to particular reporters because they have misread one of their stories. Or refuse simply because, the media manager says, "he just doesn't like you".

Miller arrives in t-shirt and shorts carrying a pair of white trainers in one hand and a green, heavy-duty resistance band in the other. His blue baseball cap is on back-to-front, allowing a flash of dark blond hair to escape upward and onward through the half-moon strap opening. Until an hour or so ago, he was going to attend South Africa's optional training session. Then he changed his mind and opted for the gym instead.

He plops himself into an easy chair and leans forward, which makes him look like a poker player waiting for his cards to be dealt. At this range - less than a metre - the physicality of the modern cricketer comes into sharp focus. Miller has the kind of rangy, muscular frame that would not have looked out of place on a rugby loose forward a generation ago. These days he would be considered too small to play scrumhalf. Nevermind too old.

"It's crazy to think I'm 36. I don't feel 36..." He thinks for a moment. "Some days I feel 56."

Maybe that befalls him on the days he finds himself echoing the "cliche of the senior guys in the team saying, 'Enjoy it because it goes so quickly.' You don't understand that until it happens. Then you're like, 'Flip, that went quickly.' Because the last five, six years have flown by.

"In the last year I've been thinking a lot more about the last 17, 18 years of my career; where I was this or that year and thinking of the different tours.

"But in terms of enjoyment and satisfaction and getting things out of the game, I still love it. I still feel really good. I've just had a little moment in the last couple of months with a niggle. But, touch wood, I feel like I'm past that."

That moment arrived on January 19, when Miller injured a groin during an SA20 game in Paarl. He wasn't in an XI again until South Africa's warm-up match against India in Navi Mumbai on February 4. Those 16 days of uncertainty proved valuable.

"I almost felt like I needed that. Now that I've got through it, it feels like it was a wake-up call. If I want to continue playing I need to be on it and work with things like that." He throws a thumb in the direction of the thick rubber strip alongside him: "Yeah, the boring theraband and random rehab. You have to be more consistent with that kind of stuff. You can't take it lightly anymore."

Yet there is a lightness about Miller that wasn't apparent until after March 10, 2024. We can be so specific because that was when he married Camilla Harris. And bloomed as a bloke. Charles Fortune, the doyenne of a previous generation of South African cricket commentators, excused a poor stroke by a recently wedded player by saying, "When a man marries you should give him a year to settle down."

Marriage would seem to have had the opposite effect on Miller. Even from the distance of the pressbox it's apparent there is somehow more to him than previously. He looks more engaged with his teammates, more willing to weigh in, more of a presence when he's not batting or catching or fielding the ball. Is he happier as a married man?

"That's spot on. I've travelled the world and I've played a lot of games in a lot of teams, and you get into a comfort zone. I absolutely loved my single days in terms of just doing what I wanted. But it's such a selfish life.

"It was such a good thing for me in that phase of my career, but now I'm moving to a different chapter. And it's been better than ever before. Because there is actually more to life than the game of cricket. I think you only learn that through time.

"When you're younger, if you don't do well, it's like, 'This is the end of me! This is the end of the road!' You're short-sighted. But as you get older, you realise, 'It's OK. It's just one game. OK, it's not OK, but it will be fine.'"

It was exponentially better than OK in the Super Eights match against India at the Narendra Modi Stadium two days after this interview was conducted. Quinton de Kock, Aiden Markram and Ryan Rickelton had all been dismissed with just 20 runs scored when Miller walked to the middle after four overs. He stayed until the 16th, sharing 97 off 51 with Dewald Brevis and 35 off 21 with Stubbs and scoring 63 off 35.

Miller delivered one of the most consequential South Africa performances in years. He took guard in the throes of a floundering innings and becalmed it with sensible strokes and unimpeachable running between the wickets. More than enough runs came, even against some of the game's finest bowlers.

The Indians seemed stunned by their opponents' refusal to panic and fall over. Instead, it was the home side who lost the plot. They lurched to 51/5 inside 10 overs and lost their last five wickets for 25 runs to crash to their second-heaviest T20I defeat.

None of which would have happened without Miller's intervention. Of course, sometimes it isn't at all OK. One of those times came on June 29, 2024 in Barbados, where India found a way to win the T20 World Cup final against South Africa - who had needed 30 off as many balls. Miller was central to the drama; he holed out to Hardik Pandya, with the help of a miracle boundary catch by Suryakumar Yadav, with 16 needed off six.

Perhaps the most enduring image of the tournament, for South Africans, was Camilla consoling her distraught husband on the outfield after the match.

"Yeah, that was a hard moment," Miller said. "But just knowing she was there... guys who have people who are close to them, people who understand, does make things better. A lot of the time in a male environment, guys don't open up to each other. But you can with your wife."

In the midst of the deepest disappointment, there was love. It was going to be OK, after all.

"The girls played a big part in that World Cup," Miller said. "They were pretty much there for the whole tournament. People say negative stuff about families and wives being there, but it was good because they brought a lot of energy and something different to the group."

David and Camilla weren't the only Millers on the field that day: "It was a special moment we went through together, and she was pregnant." Benjamin David Miller was born on January 30 last year. He was at last year's IPL and he's back in India, with both his parents, for the T20 World Cup.

"I'm loving being a dad and a husband. What brings me joy is seeing Benji on the field with me," Miller said. "I've always had that vision, but I've never been able to be in that position. It excites me that I'm still playing cricket, and he's [almost] a year old.

"He's so switched on and he's growing so quickly. He's just a year away from him talking. He's nearly walking already. It's all happened so quickly."

There are parental perks: "At the airport, because we've got a baby, we go straight to the front of the line." And surprises: "I'm quite freaked out about germs, and I used to think my child would never crawl on the floor. But it's impossible to stop him. He's enjoyed the airport and hotel floors of India."

Miller is on his 11th international tour of India. He has also played in 13 editions of the IPL in this country. "I've worked out that I've spent about three-and-a-half years in India," he said. That's 10% of his life.

"India humbles you. In South Africa, we're exposed to wealthy as well as poor people. But here that contrast is heightened. Everything is on another level.

"In the IPL you spend time with players who've come from nothing. You get to know them, and their mom and dad will come to the hotel and all they want to do is take a picture with you. These players are in the same team as you, but they come from such different circumstances. There is so much to appreciate about that.

"But there are times when I get frustrated in India. Everyone here is so hospitable. All they want to do is help you. You're carrying a booklet, and they want to carry it for you. 'It's OK, I can carry my own booklet. I'm from South Africa; we carry 10 bags at a time.' But it's coming from such a good place. They just want to help."

Does he enjoy the attention?

"Yes. I think that's only human. But it can be draining. If no-one knows me or people do know me, that doesn't bother me. But managing that space can be difficult."

It seems almost rude to ask, but when he's not training or playing what does he do all day?

"You get into a routine where you go to bed late; watch a movie or two or whatever. In the evenings, you watch the games. Because you go to bed late, you wake up late. You have a late breakfast, and then you're into the afternoon. So it's really just the afternoon you've got to get through. And then the evening comes around again."

While we're counting minutes and days, or tours and tournaments, it's worth saying that Miller is at his 12th ICC event. He's been to three Champions Trophies and three World Cups, and this is his sixth T20 World Cup. The 2024 final is the closest South Africa have come to winning any of those tournaments. That must hurt?

"It does. But I still want to do more. I don't see it as a negative. There's always a chance for us to go one step further. It's most certainly not a burden to me. I don't go out there and say, 'We suck at World Cups.' This is an opportunity to do well."

Remember, Miller spoke before the game against India. How well might South Africa do this time?

"As a team, we're really mature. We understand each others' roles, and we're in a space where the talk is about important things. There's no fluff. The guys just get on with the job. If it needs to be done, it gets done without someone having to spell it out to anyone."

How about Miller spells out whether, with all his earnings from cricket, he will need to work after retiring?

"No." But, of course, it isn't that simple: "It's not about the money. It's about having a purpose. I still have huge ambitions in my life and I want to add value to this world."

So what might he do? "At this stage I don't have a particular answer, but I'd like at some point to give back to the game and help youngsters make better career decisions. I see them come in and they have no idea. They love the game and they're good at it, but everything else is a blur to them.

"They don't really pay attention to the details of stuff that happens off the field. I'm not talking about becoming an agent. It's more... I don't know what it would be called. I'm still trying to work it out."

Take your time. You're only 36.