Gqeberha – Aiden Markram has been surrounded by great leaders throughout his international career and they influence and inspire his captaincy style.
Under the supervision of Ray Jennings, Markram became the first captain to bring the elusive World Cup trophy to South Africa back in 2014, and in almost no time, he broke into the senior men’s side.
Since the 2014 Under 19 World Cup, the spotlight has been on him as he was earmarked as South Africa’s future captain.
When he made his debut in 2017, the Proteas were under Faf du Plessis’ leadership and were looking to invest in a younger opening batter and a potential future leader, and Markram ticked all the boxes.
The team at the time had AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, JP Duminy and Dale Steyn, to name a few. Any youngster coming into a team with such legends of the game is bound to learn and mature a lot quicker.
The step up from SA U19s to franchise cricket and then to international cricket was far from easy, but in Markram’s case it was made a lot easier by the experienced heads in South Africa's change rooms of the past.
“(Captaining the senior team) is definitely different to under-19 cricket. I suppose there’s bits and pieces you can take from it (SA U19 captaincy journey),” said Markram, on the eve of the first T20I against the West Indies.
"We’ve had some great leaders around us to sort of sponge information from, and to see how they operate has also shaped the way I think as well.
“Being quite young and being with that legendary team that the Proteas had at that time and seeing how Faf marshalled his troops was something that I looked up to and really strive to try to become. I’ve learnt a lot from him, probably without him knowing but by just observing from the side."
A year into his international career, he captained in an ODI series against India, while Du Plessis was out of the series. The youngster held his nerve and did a solid job, despite South Africa losing the series 5-1 to a strong unit led by Virat Kohli.
Five years later, Markram will take the field as the new T20I skipper, and will take confidence from having been Du Plessis’ apprentice.
Markram acknowledges the growth that needed to take place over the past five years and reckons all the experience will make captaincy a touch easier.
“At that young age I was very hard on myself. You have to learn to take things in your stride, try take outcomes from things and focus on things that give you the best chance of succeeding on the day, whether it works out or not,” said Markram.
“Experience helps as well. You rub shoulders with great leaders and great players in the team, so they help you put things into perspective quite nicely.”
Captaining T20 cricket is very different from captaining in the other two formats. It is unpredictable, fast-paced and really demands captains think on their feet.
Having captained the champions of the SA20 league, the Sunrisers EC, Markram knows all too well about all the intricacies of being a captain in T20 cricket.
“Things happen very quickly in T20 cricket. You almost want to try to stay as far ahead of the game as you can as captain.
"Try to predict things, try get information before the game as to certain match-ups that could work in our favour, and also assessing conditions on the day.
“In our team there’s a whole lot of leaders. We saw quite a few captains in the SA20 league that are going to be in my use going into the series and in the future as well. I’ll look to tap into them and hopefully that can help me along the way.”
The first of three T20Is against the West Indies starts at 2pm tomorrow at SuperSport Park in Centurion.
IOL Sport