Elevating Markram food for thought

Level-headed observers hate it when a young player like Aiden Markram is suddenly touted as a Proteas player after one good performance. Last weekend the 22-year-old Titans batsman smashed 18 fours and five sixes in a 138-ball 183 against the Highveld Lions in the domestic One-Day Cup.

It’s the highest individual score in the tournament.

Markram didn’t really need to play that innings to be in the spotlight.

He’s pretty much done that since he captained the national Under-19 side, which included Kagiso Rabada, to World Cup glory in 2014.

Markram scored the most runs in that tournament and his captaincy was sound.

There was flutters of anxiety when rumours surfaced last year that he was moving abroad but those proved wide of the mark when he signed a contract with the Titans.

For a country that likes to promote young prodigies, Markram took a while to get into franchise cricket. But there was method to the alleged “madness”.

Pierre de Bruyn, the hugely successful former Tuks coach and now Leicestershire mentor, previously told me Markram needed to be carefully managed.

“He’s very talented but one-dimensional at the moment. He’s a great one-day batsman yet lacks discipline in the four-day format. Aiden needs some time to work

Heinz Schenk

on that.” An off-season in English club cricket has done that.

Markram is delivering fireworks in one-day cricket, but he actually made 565 runs in this season’s domestic four-day competition at an average of 51. That haul included two big centuries.

Still, does that warrant him being considered seriously for the Proteas?

If Markram batted in the middle-order, probably not yet.

But Markram is an opener and it’s becoming an increasingly problematic role in South African cricket.

We’ve seen the struggles of Stephen Cook in New Zealand and they truly are real.

Cook’s technique isn’t good enough for Test cricket in the long-term, but he’s there because there’s no one else.

The Proteas’ one-day team already boasts an opening pair – Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla – who aren’t specialist openers in four-day cricket.

Currently, Markram is a rare commodity: a specialist opener.

The fact that nobody else is knocking on the door means it’s justified to fast-track him into the national set-up if he’s needed.