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Early in 2018, when South Africa’s veteran players were getting hurt like ten pins, a quiet young man with a melancholy manner was given the captaincy. They lost the ODI series to a formidable India team, and the young batsman who had turned Virat Kohli into a star even momentarily lost his spot in the team later in the year.
Not everyone is cut out to be a captain. Especially not for someone like Aiden Markram, who preferred to be by himself, avoided the spotlight, and preferred to set an example rather than give orders. We were concerned the player might have been harmed by the encounter. It’s odd that six years later, after leading South Africa into the T20 World Cup and winning a championship with his SA20 team, Markram remembers that first tryst with captaincy as “fantastic” and not a chastening experience.
“No, never,” Markram said when asked if he ever regretted expecting captaincy so early in his career. “I’d never regret taking captaincy for your national team. At the moment it was obviously not the best series for us as a team, but if you look at it in hindsight, that’s why I’m grateful, because I was able to learn.
“It was fantastic to be honest. Completely unexpected, obviously, getting the captaincy then, but the learning that was able to take place from going through that experience of that series was great. Obviously at the time it was not ideal, having lost badly, but you look at it in hindsight and you almost become grateful for that. I learned quite a bit through that series and had some really awesome senior players guiding me while I was out there as well, which sort of helps you grow a lot as a captain and as a player.”
When it comes to batting, Markram has become into one of the uncommon commodities in limited-overs cricket: a middle-order batsman who can adjust his style of play to suit the circumstances. South Africa is one of the favourites at a World Cup once more despite never having won one in any format thanks to Heinrich Klaasen’s destruction of spin and his ability to hit long lengths and fast tempo.
The South African team still has that obstacle to overcome, as usual, but skipper Markram isn’t under any more pressure.
“For the time being, we’re trying to achieve something we haven’t achieved before,” Markram said. “So, I don’t think that brings too much extra pressure. I think it brings a bit more excitement and energy to the team. But we’d love to get that first elusive one, of course. I believe that we have the team to do so. But I don’t think it adds too much more pressure. Guys are definitely really hungry to get that first one.”