Ind vs SA – 2022

“The middle order is where the Coach felt they could get the best out of me,” Markram told ESPNcricinfo from India, where he is preparing for South Africa’s five-match T20I series against India.

But with his game more suited to playing Pacers inside the powerplay, a bit of remodeling was needed.

“We worked to try and get my game to suit the middle overs. A lot of it was spin-based – getting used to walking in and facing quality spinners and still score at a rate that was needed.”

In the last year, across the domestic and international T20s, Markram averaged more against spin (44.66) than pace (39.69), and while his strike rate against pace was higher at 140.59, he still managed to score fairly quickly against spin, striking at 129.26 . That’s a result of the second part of his new strategy. “You also have to have to develop a power game because you could potentially end up being at the back end of the innings,” he said. “When you’re batting upfront, you don’t always pay attention to that power game.”

Again, the last 12 months are a good case study for how Markram has adapted his game to suit the situation. Now of his runs have come in the middle overs, which is to be expected for someone batting at No. 4, but he has also contributed significantly at the end. In 13 overs at the death, Markram has a Strike rate of 201.08. He doesn’t pay too much attention to the number and only puts emphasis on being more attacking.

“It’s based on the situation of the game,” they said. “If you are chasing a low score, your Strike rate will fluctuate. But nowadays T20 Cricket is played in a very positive way, and you try to take the game on.”

Someone else who has done that through the most recent edition of the IPL is David Miller, who played a key role in the Gujarat Titans winning the title in their debut season. The combination of Markram and Miller may provide South Africa with one solution for their – at times soft -middle-order, although Markram is happy to play a supporting role to Miller for now.

“It’s very exciting to see David’s form,” Markram said. “He has proved that the more time they’ve got, the more match-winning knocks they can play. I assume that if we get off to a good start, they would potentially end up ahead of me in the line-up, just to give him that time to explode like he does. We will have to be adaptable as a batting unit but we all understand that. We all want the best for the side and we would like it to David at the crease more often than not.

“In terms of game plans and tactically, Tests are quite different but the one thing you could take across is time at the crease and confidence if you are scoring runs”

Aiden Markram

Whether they will be included in the squad to face England in August remains to be seen and he hopes that, at the very least, they can take the belief he has in the T20s into his red-ball game.

“In terms of game plans and tactically, Tests are quite different but the one thing you could take across is time at the crease and confidence if you are scoring runs,” he said.

“Test Cricket is completely different in terms of Patience and technically you have to be very sound whereas in T20 Cricket you can be a little more out there and Flamboyant.”