When David Miller made his international debut, in May 2010, Tristan Stubbs was a nine-year-old with big dreams and big names to look up to. There was Graeme Smith, by then a veteran captain, who took no nonsense. There was AB de Villiers, who was starting to be recognised as one of the best around. And there was Hashim Amla, sage-like in his staying power at the crease.
But as Stubbs rose through the schooling ranks and found himself batting closer and closer to the end of innings, it was Miller who became an inspiration. As luck would have it, Miller is the only one of those with whom he has since ended up sharing a senior international dressing room and his game is better for it.
"I love batting with Dave [Miller]. I pretty much watched him my whole junior years and tried to mould my game around Dave and the way he plays the backend," Stubbs said in Ahmedabad, where South Africa are preparing for their second Super Eight game against West Indies.
The pair's latest effort came against India, where they added 35 runs in 21 balls and made sure momentum was not lost after Dewald Brevis was dismissed. When Miller was dismissed in the 16th over, Stubbs was on 17 off 11, had his eye in and took over the big-hitting to end unbeaten on 44 off 24 in what was a calculated acceleration on his part.
"You can't just try and go too early, then you all blow out. It was about managing the situation," Stubbs said. "We still had a lot of time. Five overs in a T20 game is a lot of balls and can make a big difference."
At the post-match press conference, Miller praised Stubbs for a contribution that was "massive in the context of things" and which may represent a symbolic passing of the baton.
It would come as no surprise if Miller, at 36, is close to his last T20 World Cup and if Stubbs, 25, takes over as the finisher. Stubbs has shown he is ready to step into the role, having watched, learnt and spoken to Miller. "We think so much alike about the game, about our role, which is pretty much similar. I have chewed his ear off over the years and I love the way he goes about it," Stubbs said. "We speak a lot about batsmanship, which sometimes can get lost. Everyone wants you to hit from ball one, and you can lose the value of your wicket, whereas myself and Dave, we think alike, so it's been awesome over the years to learn from that."
It's not explicitly said but both Stubbs and Miller have, at various points in their career, spoken about their dislike for being seen simply as bashers and their desire to be given the chance to build innings. That's why Stubbs embraced being the No. 3 in Tests - albeit the role was fairly short-lived - and why Miller prefers No. 5 to No. 6 in T20Is. The strength of South Africa's top order means it's not always the case that either of them gets time in a T20I before they have to go big. But what Stubbs is suggesting is that they are aiming to create some for themselves.
"If you need to go from ball one and the game's telling you to do that, it's pretty simple, you just try and hit from ball one," Stubbs said. "Often the game tells you what you need to do."
Undoubtedly, both prefer spending more time at the crease, and it seems they also enjoy spending it there together. Overall, Stubbs and Miller have batted together 12 times and scored 441 runs, including four fifty partnerships. At this tournament, they have shared three stands - against Canada (75 off 39), Afghanistan, and India (35 off 21) for a total of 114 runs at a run rate of 11.21. The combination of Brevis with Miller and Stubbs provides a strong middle order to back up the top three and is followed by two allrounders in Marco Jansen and Corbin Bosch, which has elongated South Africa's batting line-up till No. 8, while Keshav Maharaj and Kagiso Rabada can both have a swing.
Crucially, the strongest XI - which was the team that faced India - has worked out how best to play together, and it comes from a limited number of matches. "It sounds weird but it's five or six games where we've played together now in a row - these matches and the West Indies series - and you actually learn how to bat with each other, which is an underrated thing," Stubbs said.
It's all an awe-inspiring thing for someone like him, who spent his formative years wanting to bat like Miller and is now batting with him.