Young David Miller's quick-fire batting displays for his domestic side Dolphins and subsequently for South Africa A on their tour of Bangladesh prompted selector Andrew Hudson to include him in the Proteas' tour of West Indies as injured Wayne Parnell's replacement in 2010. Known as a T20 specialist, Miller enjoys playing a wide array of strokes on the front as well as the back foot.

In his debut T20I match, Miller top scored with 33 in a game that South Africa won by a single run. It prompted his inclusion in ODIs and subsequently, he made his ODI debut against the West Indies. In his first two outings, some impressive slogging helped South Africa set difficult totals which they eventually went on to win. Miller was then named in South Africa's preliminary 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup squad but did not feature in the final 15 to make it to the tournament.

After a hiatus of more than a year, Miller was back into the ODI team on the back of his improved ball striking and his ability to handle pressure-cooker situations. This ability was on display when Miller played some breathtaking knocks in the Indian T20 League for the Mohali franchise. His finishing in the league games was of the highest quality which emphasized his destructive prowess. One such innings saw him take the bowling attack to the cleaners giving his team an unlikely victory, one that would redefine ultimate slog-over hitting by the phrase, "If it's in the V, it's in the tree, if it's in the arc, it's out of the park."

During Bangladesh's tour of South Africa in 2017/18, Miller cracked the fastest T20I century off just 35 balls and also became the first batsman to hit a century while batting at number five. Also he achieved the distinction of being one of the few players to feature in 100 ODIs without playing a single Test match.

Apart from his outing in the Indian T20 league, he has had stints in T20 competitions of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and England. Mohali restored faith in Miller when he was one of the two players they retained ahead of the 2014 auction. He was also handed the captaincy of Punjab in 2016 but after a troubled start for them, he was replaced by Murali Vijay. Miller was released ahead of the auction for the 13th edition and Rajasthan bought him for INR 75 lakhs.