“Excellent Thinker, Excellent Speaker”: Dale Steyn Endorses Aiden Markram to Be South Africa’s Next Captain in All Formats

For the first time ever, a South African cricket team captured the World Cup championship in 2014. South Africa won their first and only U19 World Cup title to date as they easily defeated Pakistan in the championship match held in the United Arab Emirates in 2014. They gained two future international talents from the competition in Kagiso Rabada and Aiden Markram.

Rabada is already a contemporary legend, a traveling member of the fast bowling nobility.

On the other side, Markram’s skill and leadership qualities made him a lock for success from a young age.

By guiding South Africa to an U19 World Cup victory and finishing as their top run scorer, Markram lived up to the promise. Then, at 23, he led the men’s international squad for the second time as captain.

He has already strengthened his case for full-time South Africa leadership by guiding his SA20 team, Sunrisers Eastern Cape, to consecutive finals, the first of which resulted in a championship last year.

Sunrisers Hyderabad also gave him the leadership for the 2023 Indian Premier League after being impressed by his performance in the SA20 last year.

Markram now leads South Africa in Twenty20 internationals, and it is likely that he will soon be given full-time leadership in the other two forms as well.

Fast bowling great Dale Steyn, who coaches the Sunrisers Eastern Cape and Sunrisers Hyderabad, supports this assertion. Steyn continues to keep a close eye on Markram.

Steyn, nevertheless, believes that South Africa has a number of contenders, each with a great chance of leading the national squad.

Thus, South Africa has a serious dilemma when it comes to choosing a captain. Steyn said on Thursday to News18 CricketNext. They have a ton of guys that are capable of doing it. However, if we’re talking particularly about Aiden, I can help him a lot since I’m a member of his coaching staff. It has been amazing to see him go about his business in this SA20. The manner in which he has inspired everyone, brought them together, and conducted conversations both on and off the field in the locker room has been very remarkable.

One of the best fast bowlers to have ever played the game, Steyn, believes that Markram has shown his adaptability and excellent communication skills by getting along well with the local players in the IPL, where language barriers may sometimes occur.

“I saw Markram play in the IPL last year. I felt it was excellent. Additionally, gaining the support of the local players in the IPL is a difficult task. One issue with many local players is their poor English language skills. Furthermore, sometimes they are not as good at picking up accents. Therefore, in order for everyone to understand you when you speak as a foreign captain, you virtually have to speak a little bit louder, slower, and more pronounced. You want to hold everyone’s attention, and I felt Aiden did a great job of explaining that to the local players, particularly the younger men. And I believe that’s one thing he was able to see and perceive clearly. Steyn said, “He was able to make the change.

In addition to his capacity to build a rapport with players from diverse cultural backgrounds, Steyn notes that Markram has an excellent cricketing intellect.

“And he’s clearly got a fantastic intellect from a cricketing perspective. He can think clearly. After that, he plays excellent fielding and hitting leadership. He made a really incredible catch the other night, in my opinion. And he held himself to that type of level. However, it also elevates the team. So he does more than simply pontificate. He really embodies the words. Thus, yes. I’m OK for it if South Africa chooses to be captained by someone like Aiden Markram in the future, Steyn said.

However, Steyn believes Temba Bavuma, who continues to be South Africa’s first-choice captain for Tests and ODIs, is capable of carrying on in the position.

In 61 appearances as the captain of South Africa across three forms (Tests, 33 ODIs, and 25 T20Is), Bavuma has a strong record of winning 36, losing 22, and winning none of them.

Temba Bavuma is still, in my opinion, a very capable captain. He doesn’t seem to have any issues in my opinion. I believe that he was averaging somewhere around 100 with a strike-rate of over 100 before the World Cup. Therefore, are we focusing just on statistics or are we also considering how a captain may maximize the performance of his team? Thus, at this point, it’s kind of an in-betweener. However, I think there are a lot of guys in the South African system who could lead the squad, Steyn said.

Bavuma’s leadership remains unquestioned, but his performance at the bat has come under scrutiny, particularly in light of his performance in the 2023 ODI World Cup, when South Africa advanced to the semi-finals. At the main event, Bavuma scored 145 runs at an average of 18.12 in eight games.

“It is evident that Aiden has performed very well in leading the Sunrisers Eastern Cape to two finals—winning it the previous year and making it to this one. Additionally, I believe that someone like Keshav Maharaj is a very wonderful leader and a terrific thinker. David Miller, the captain of the Paarl Royals, has been seen by you,” Steyn said.