Aiden Markram was the captain of Sunrisers Eastern Cape which won the inaugural edition of the SA20 League earlier this month.
South African batter Aiden Markram has been appointed as the new skipper of the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) team for the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 season. Markram takes over from former New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson, who was released by the franchise after last season.
The Protea player was also part of the Sun Group-owned Sunrisers Eastern Cape franchise, which won the inaugural edition of the SA20 T20 League earlier this month. There was speculation that Mayank Agarwal, who was bought for Rs 8.5 crore by SRH could also be in contention but Markram has pipped the former Punjab Kings batter.
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The Kaviya Maran-owned SRH franchise made the announcement on their social media account on Thursday (February 23) morning. The South African notched up 381 runs in IPL 2022 at an average of 47.63 with a strike-rate of over 139 with three fifties.
Markram was the third-highest run-getter in SA20 league with 366 runs from 12 matches at an average of 33.27 with 1 hundred and 1 fifty in the competition. Markram’s Sunrisers Eastern Cape defeated Pretoria Capitals in the final of the tournament.
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Speaking ahead of the SA20 final, Markram did express his interest in becoming the new SRH captain. “What’s going to happen, to be honest. Either way, we back the management’s decision about who they want to be in charge,” Markram said.
“Becoming the captain is not the be-all and end-all. You can be in some form of leadership role too. But I am okay with captaincy, it’s something that I enjoy doing,” he said ahead of the SA20 final against Pretoria Capitals.
“I have been captaining for a while before this tournament started. It’s been a nice experience, a fresh start, I would say,” he added.
Karnataka opener Mayank Agarwal was released by Punjab Kings after a less than impressive stint as their captain replacing KL Rahul in 2022. He was bought for Rs 8.25 crore in IPL 2023 auction and many believe that SRH look at him as a skipper. He has been in sensational form in Ranji Trophy off late, scoring a brilliant double century against Saurashtra in the knockout stages as well.
However, former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar believes that SRH shouldn’t look at Agarwal as the new skipper. “If it was left to me, I wouldn’t got to Mayank Agarwal,” Manjrekar told Star Sport ahead of SRH captaincy announcement.
SRH squad for IPL 2023
Abdul Samad, Aiden Markram, Rahul Tripathi, Glenn Phillips, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Umran Malik, Harry Brook, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Anmolpreet Singh, Akeal Hosein, Abhishek Sharma, Marco Jansen, Washington Sundar, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kartik Tyagi, Mayank Agarwal, Heinrich Klaasen, Adil Rashid, Mayank Markande, Vivrant Sharma, Samarth Vyas, Sanvir Singh, Upendra Yadav, Mayank Dagar
