Cricket South Africa (CSA) is taking CVs for the vacant position of Proteas Test captain.
Faf du Plessis was the last man skippering the side, but he stood down after a moeilike series against England earlier this year.
It was then expected that
limited-overs leader Quinton de Kock would take over, but he was ruled out by CSA.
Rewind a bit and cricket fans will recall that opening batsman Aiden Markram was eyed for this position ever since he made his debut for the Test team back in 2017.
Actually even before then. Markram is the only captain in history to have guided South Africa to glory at the U19 World Cup - he did so in 2014.
But while he had future captain written all over him, the now-25-year-old has recently started struggling for form.
Not having scored a Test hundred in over two years - the last coming against Australia in 2018 - Markram has had some inner demons to fight.
He explains: “The mental bit of cricket becomes the difference between the greats and the ones who are just good.
“It’s really difficult to keep a positive frame of mind if you think from a batter’s perspective - you fail more times than you succeed.
“That’s something you have to learn to deal with and remain positive throughout those failures.
“That’s probably the toughest part for me.
“I try to feed off past successes, but each person will have their own way of remaining positive.”
Bad form led to frustration and when he was given out LBW for a duck against India in October last year, Markram fractured some wrist bones after hitting a solid object.
He then injured a finger, which required surgery, in the Boxing Day Test against England last year.
Of the injuries, Markram says: “The most challenging part of being injured is not letting your mind run off.
“If you’ve got so much time on your hands you tend to just overthink things, you delve deep into things which are unnecessary.
“Trying to keep your mind at bay when you have time off is the
biggest challenge.
He adds: “I never thought about giving up... I doubted myself a bit this last year and it was a tough space to be. But if you want to be a top performer at a high level, you’ve got to deal with it.”
Is he ready to take over the
captaincy mantle from du Plessis?
Markram says: “I really enjoy captaincy, I enjoy the responsibilities that come with it. It’s something I would love to do, but I’ve never given captaining the country too much thought - it’s always been a shot in the dark for me.
“Now that writers are putting my name in the hat, it’s nice to be considered.
“I would give an arm and a leg to be able to do it. [But it’s] not the be-all and end-all, I’d be honoured if it was the case, but I’m not looking too much into it.
“I am not going to become
desperate about it”
Fellow batsman Temba Bavuma is considered to be the other option, while Keshav Maharaj has also thrown his name into the hat.
Other rumours have Rassie van der Dussen and the experienced Dean Elgar also in the mix.
dudley.carstens@inl.co.za