OPINION: Can Markram magic lead Proteas to World Cup glory?

Everything Aiden Markram touches at the moment seems to turn to gold, after a remarkable recent turnaround in cricketing fortunes.

Over the past few years Markram has been criticised for not living up to what many pundits and fans believed was his full potential, and this culminated with him being dropped from the Proteas Test team for their tour of Australia this past December and early January.

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However since then Markram has managed a stunning revival and the question now is how long can his golden run continue.

At the start of the year Markram led the Sunrisers Eastern Cape to the inaugural SA20 title, while putting in starring performances that saw him score a century in the competition semifinal and be named as player-of-the-tournament.

Due to his amazing form and leadership qualities the Indian backers of the EC side, Sunrisers Hyderabad made him captain for this seasons IPL.

Markram earned a recall to the Proteas Test side for their series against the West Indies and duly rewarded the faith put in him by scoring his sixth Test century in a man-of-the-match showing in the first Test win, while his top form over the series saw him named player-of-the-series.

New T20 captain

He followed that up by being named as the new Proteas T20 captain, although his first series didn’t exactly go to plan with them beaten 2-1 by the Windies.

But he did help lead the side to the highest ever T20I run chase in the second match, where they chased down 259 to win, with Markram ending unbeaten on 38 while scoring the winning run.

Markram added the cherry to the cake by starring in the Proteas two must win ODI matches against the Netherlands, which they needed to win to give themselves the best chance of automatically qualifying for the ODI World Cup.

He scored an unbeaten 51 in the first game, a career best 175 in the second, picked up three wickets over the two matches, was named man-of-the-match in the second game and was named player-of-the-series.

Can Markram’s golden run now take the Proteas to the World Cup title in India later this year.

He still has the IPL to impress in, followed by a home ODI and T20 series against Australia, where Markram will hope to continue shining for the Proteas.