MARKRAM'S MATURATION: HOW THE PROTEAS SKIPPER FULFILLED FAF DU PLESSIS' PROPHECY

When Aiden Markram was first entrusted with the Proteas’ captaincy six years ago after Faf du Plessis was ruled out of a home India ODI series, it was probably too soon.

But such was the impressive aura around the youngster, it was easy to see why Cricket SA, and Du Plessis himself, were keen to unearth the next Graeme Smith, who, too, was handed the responsibility of leading his country at the tender age of 23.

Du Plessis still believes that Markram was the right guy for the job — despite the current Proteas T20I skipper having only played a handful of international matches back then.

"With Aiden Markram it was always there. When we looked at him, he was this composed, stylish, very young guy," Joburg Super Kings captain Du Plessis said on ESPNcricinfo’s Timeout show.

"I remember very clearly there was a point post my (Proteas) captaincy where I was a big fan of pushing Aiden to become all-format captain because he was, in my eyes, a no-brainer.

"I saw straight away that leadership was on his career (path), and in the team, we knew there was something special coming from him. From a leadership perspective, he was well beyond his years."

While the initial national captaincy jaunt did not quite achieve the desired results, Markram has been a revelation since being appointed Proteas T20I captain on a permanent basis in May 2024. Older and wiser, with a couple of years' experience leading Sunrisers Eastern Cape to two Betway SA20 championship titles — and now also Durban’s Super Giants — Markram is the front and centre of everything the Proteas have achieved at the last two T20 World Cups.

 Still the only South African captain to raise a white-ball ICC World Cup trophy aloft — achieved when he led the SA U19 team, featuring the likes of MI Cape Town trio Kagiso Rabada, Corbin Bosch, and Jason Smith, to the global title in 2014 — Markram came within seven runs of taking the Proteas all the way to ICC T20 World Cup glory in the US and Caribbean two years ago.

He is now again driving the Proteas’ quest in India and Sri Lanka, where the national team has qualified for successive T20 World Cup semifinals for the first time ever after their nine-wicket thrashing of the West Indies in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

"There was a period where South Africa went to other captains in terms of different formats and now it's like they've gone back to [him being] the white-ball captain of the T20 side and he's doing an amazing job," Du Plessis said.

"You can just see his record speaks for itself, even the SA20 competition. He's won it twice with the local team there. So, from a captaincy perspective, he's doing a lot of good things."

The adoration is mutual, with Markram having stated upon his Proteas captaincy appointment that his leadership style was heavily influenced by Du Plessis after monitoring his former skipper closely during their shared time in the national team.

"Being quite young and being with that legendary team that the Proteas had at that time and seeing how Faf marshalled his troops was something that I looked up to and really strived to try to become. I’ve learnt a lot from him, probably without him knowing, but by just observing from the side," Markram said.

Markram has certainly taken a page from Du Plessis’s leadership book: a captain has to walk the walk, with performances holding far greater gravitas than any words.

The dynamic right-hander has slotted seamlessly into his opening position with 264 runs, including three half-centuries, at an average of 66 and a strike rate of 178.30, placing him third on the overall list of run-scorers at this T20 World Cup.

It is the type of consistency that was amiss during the early stages of his career, but again, Du Plessis stressed that the signs of Markram developing into one of South Africa’s all-time greats were there from the very beginning.

"Initially, in the early stages of his career, he had great 20s, 30s, 40s, and there was a frustration around the fans in South Africa, that can he go just a little deeper, because they could see it was there" Du Plessis said.

"But inside the dressing room, there was a feeling that this guy needs to be backed because he’s that good, regardless of averages and runs. 

"There are certain players that you just get that feeling. Jacques Kallis was a great example; he also didn’t do well at the start of his career, and that’s the backing early on they needed because people could see."

Markram’s Proteas have one final Super Eights clash remaining against the Sikandar Raza-led Zimbabwe on Sunday in Delhi before they head to the high-pressure knockout stages next week.