Birthday special: Aiden Markram – One of South Africa’s most talented batters

AB de Villiers was not at the top of his game when he took the field at the Wanderers in 2018 for what was dubbed the final Test of his career. One of the greatest batters of all time displayed flashes of brilliance but was largely shaky against an Australian attack that was obviously affected by the ball-tampering incident.

However, something extraordinary was cooking at the other end. A 23-year-old batter named Aiden Markram was outplaying his famed teammate, launching beautiful cover drives and slamming cracking pull shots on his route to 154 runs. A new entrant to the Test setup back then, Markram ended the series against Australia as the leading run-scorer, when it had not even been a year of his Test debut.

Soon after his Test debut, he also made his ODI debut in 2017. When South African management named Markram as the stand-in skipper for Faf du Plessis, in a game against India, at a time when he had just two ODI caps, they made it clear that the all-rounder had something in him. The management looked at him as a potential leader for the future, and Markram has shown tremendous growth since then.

A batter with great potential, Aiden Markram is one of the most talented batters that the Proteas have had on their side, but he still needs to be nurtured. After being hailed as the next big thing in South African cricket, he ended up losing his form and stability, which allowed more reliable players to surpass him for a while.

He appeared to be experiencing an early decline. Markram faced some competition and kept honing his skills to join the national squad because he had experience on his side. He excelled in limited-overs cricket as well. He continues to be a classy and composed hitter who is competitive and powerful on the off side. He had a great T20 World Cup, was South Africa’s top run-scorer in ODIs in 2021, and was voted T20I Player of the Year in Cricket South Africa’s annual awards.

Markram has excellent control and concentration, a subtle yet formidable style that he can modify according to the need of the hour and the self-assurance to match it. Markram adds a larger variety of strokes to a typically conservative South African top-order. Markram has proved his worth across all formats of the game, but his best is yet to come!