Markram’s services vital for ODI side – Boucher
Proteas coach Mark Boucher on Thursday singled out the services of the recalled Aiden Markram as being potentially vital for their 2023 ODI World Cup campaign, suggesting the 26-year-old is going to be in the starting XI for the series that starts against Pakistan at Centurion on Friday.
Markram has an astonishing record in franchise 50-over cricket, averaging 63.04 with seven centuries in 22 innings; in his last three campaigns his strike-rate has been 109.95. Based on that and his current phenomenal form, his ODI record – averaging just 27.95 with a strike-rate of 85 – seems an anomaly.
Boucher, his coach at the Titans when the franchise won two Momentum One-Day Cup titles, certainly thinks so.
“We understand how good a player Aiden is, he’s that good that we believe now is the time for him to resurrect his ODI career. He had a funny start to his ODI career, being made captain after a couple of games; I don’t know if it was the right call. But he now has a clear direction of the way we want him to bat – like he has in franchise cricket, we want to get him into that same mindset.
“When he’s in form like he is now then he really stands out and we see him as a potential matchwinner in 2023, so we need to get him in the side. In red-ball cricket he can just go out and bat, but being a humble character, sometimes in white-ball cricket if he’s not striking at 140 he feels he’s holding up the team, he feels pressurised. But if he or Quinton de Kock get to a hundred then not many batsmen will outscore them.
“If Aiden’s batting in the 40th over, he’ll probably have a hundred at close to a run-a-ball and we have seen what he can do at the back end of an innings. We hope he clicks and gets really big runs, we’ve worked on a couple of different shot options for him and we feel he is just one or two knocks away,” Boucher said on Thursday.
Other players who I would like to see involved in the series:
Wiaan Mulder
It’s been a long time since the 23-year-old played the last of his 10 ODIs, against Sri Lanka at Centurion in March 2019, but the Proteas need more consistent output from their all-rounder than Andile Phehlukwayo has been delivering lately. Mulder is an accurate bowler who is developing more variety and is capable of hitting the ball far, as his List A strike-rate of 87.67 shows.
Heinrich Klaasen
Since he was the Player of the Series in the whitewash of Australia a year ago, Klaasen’s international career has stalled largely due to illness and injury. But the Proteas need to start thinking about a viable replacement as a finisher for the great David Miller and Klaasen has shown he can fit the bill. One of the better players of spin in the country, he is also a composed fellow ideally suited to the madness of the death overs.
Sisanda Magala
Deeply admired by his fellow domestic professionals and highly-rated by no less of a legend than Dale Steyn [https://citizen.co.za/sport/south-african-sport/cricket/proteas/2465546/dale-steyns-appreciation-for-sisanda-magala-he-has-fight-in-him/],the time has come to see if Magala can transfer his impressive franchise displays to the international stage. The burly 30-year-old bowls with deceptive pace and his greatest strength comes in the death overs with his potent yorkers. Batting at eight, he would also provide a powerful hitter down the order.