Aiden Markram of the Proteas during day 1 of the 4th Sunfoil Test match between South Africa and Australia at Bidvest Wanderers Stadium on March 30, 2018 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Lee Warren/Gallo Images)
Here’s a quirky but pretty important fact about Aiden Markram’s short international career: he’s only played Test cricket in South Africa.
It’s a thing that, while not exactly weighing him down, is occupying his mind as the Proteas prepare to get their tour of Sri Lanka up and running from this weekend.
“I don’t want to be labelled as that guy who only does well in home conditions,” the 23-year-old opener said on Thursday.
“I’d like to do well on this tour without putting any additional pressure on myself because it is outside of South Africa. As an opening batsman, if you do well you are getting the team off to a good start, that is the most important thing in my view. If the team is ending up in a good position then I will be happy.”
Markram has indeed been trying his utmost best to do exactly that.
Since his Test debut against Bangladesh in late September last year, the stylish right-hander has scored 1 000 runs on the dot in his 10 Tests, a haul that includes four hundreds at an average of over 55.
Importantly, a large chunk of those runs have come against the high-quality attacks of India and Australia, boding well for the looming challenge.
But Markram is not oblivious to the fact that conditions in Sri Lanka is, in a word, unpredictable.
“I’ve tried to simulate spinning conditions and balls that might stay lower, there is quite a bit of bounce back home. We tried our best before we came here to simulate how the conditions will play and from here on it is about assessing how it will be,” he said.
“Generally back at home the wickets get slower than they are in summer, that naturally helped us. We batted in different and worn-out creases to try and get some spin. We tried our best back home to make it as realistic as we think it might be.”
While veterans such as Faf du Plessis, Dean Elgar and Hashim Amla are still present, the void left by AB de Villiers’ international retirement does place added responsibility on Markram’s shoulders.
“It’s never nice losing a player of AB’s calibre,” said Markram.
“It’s a massive hole to fill but we have plenty of depth. There are guys on this tour that can easily do this job too.”
For more sport your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.
Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.
