Markram to continue as SA opener to boost middle order

South Africa captain Aiden Markram said he will continue in his new role as opener in the T20I team in a bid to fit in more middle-order batters.

With the three-match T20I series currently locked at 1-1, South Africa and Australia will play the decider game in Cairns on Saturday.

Markram had a strong IPL 2025 as an opener for Lucknow Super Giants, scoring five fifties in 13 innings at a strike rate of 148.82. But Markram has not registered a score beyond fifty in T20Is since October 2022.

The decision to move Markram to the top of the order was made by all-format coach Shukri Conrad.

“Going through our squads and the players that we’ve got around, we think probably that (opening) is the best fit. We’ve got some guys in the middle order that are a lot more destructive than I am, and we feel probably it’s better off for me and Ricks (Ryan Rickelton) to be up top.”

“I did it a bit at the IPL and am starting to do it now again at international cricket. It’s an exciting role. It’s always nice to bat in the powerplay, and the focus is to get the team off to good starts,” said Markram to reporters on Friday.

Markram’s opening partnerships with Rickelton have been of 12 and 34 so far. Though number three Lhuan-dre Pretorius is yet to fire, there’s been some cheer from Dewald Brevis, who scored an unbeaten 125 in the second T20I.

Markram also offers an off-spin bowling option and has occasionally taken the new ball, including dismissing Travis Head in the second T20I in Darwin. “It’s very much a feel thing. It’s quite a daunting task. You just see the ball flying nowadays, and I’m not so sure I really want to be a bowler.”

“But there’ll be occasions where you feel like the wicket might be on the slower side or might offer something, and you sort of take that punt. The way I try to operate is just go on my gut feel, whatever my gut’s telling me in the moment, run with that and back that and reflect on what could have been and what should have been possibly after the game,” he added.

With South Africa having won only one of their last nine bilateral T20I series, including losing the tri-series final to New Zealand, Markram’s focus remains on reversing that record on Saturday.

Though that record was largely the cause of playing with experimental squads, it weighed on former coach Rob Walter.

The expectation is that with more of the first-choice players available to him, Conrad will produce more consistent results.

The same applies to Markram, whose leadership credentials were cemented after guiding Sunrisers Eastern Cape to consecutive SA20 titles and taking South Africa to the T20 World Cup final.

Now, he aims to match that success with his own performances, having already hinted at a personal goal to raise his game.

“It feels like we are moving in the right direction. The series so far has been good. The bowlers have been pretty good for us.”

“The previous game made our batters look good, but it was very much an individual performance (Brevis hit an unbeaten 125). So a nice challenge for our batters tomorrow to hopefully click and for them to put on a good score.”

Agencies