Sunrisers Hyderabad’s (SRH) new captain Aiden Markram has said that he will try to utilize everything he has learned about leadership from Faf du Plessis and Kane Williamson as he readies to lead the side in the upcoming IPL 2023.
SRH had decided to part ways with their former captain Kane Williamson after a poor outing in IPL 2022, but Markram had an excellent season with 381 runs at a strike rate of close to 140. SRH had also acquired former Punjab Kings skipper Mayank Agarwal in the IPL 2023 auction.
It was rumored Mayank would become captain of the Hyderabad franchise, but Markram won out as he had recently led the Sunrisers Eastern Cape to the title in the inaugural edition of SA20. He was also in great form with both the ball and the bat.
Markram scored 366 runs, including a century, in 12 matches and picked up 11 wickets in SA20 2023.
“In terms of the responsibility, yeah, you do naturally enjoy it. You always want to win as sportsmen and when you happen to be the captain, it even exaggerates it more. You want the team to always do well and satisfy the fans. You want to give your all, if it works out, it works out, it it doesn’t, it’s part of the game,” Aiden Markram told India Today during a virtual press conference organized by SA20 on Thursday.
He talked about learning the intricacies of leadership from Faf du Plessis from his time in the South African team and from Kane Williamson in SRH.
“In terms of the idol, I have worked a little bit with Faf du Plessis in the national side, he really opened my eyes to leadership and how he went about things was something that I could relate to quite well. Kane, last year at SRH, was quite similar to Faf in terms of calmness and really getting to back players and make them believe in themselves. So i have taken a lot learnings from spending time with those 2 guys,” he added.
We Want The Guys To Go Out There And Express Themselves: Aiden Markram On Meeting SRH Coach Brian Lara To Plan Strategy
Aiden Markram said he would begin discussions with head coach Brian Lara when he meets up with the legendary West Indies batter in the next few weeks. He also said that he and Lara have decided that they would begin chatting about the roadmap for SRH as early as next week.
Lara will travel to South Africa with the West Indies team as their performance mentor as the Caribbean side plays two Tests, three ODIs, and three T20Is against the Proteas.
“Very excited. We have worked briefly together last year when he was batting coach and we got on really well, certainly looking forward to working with him. We actually going to meet up now, he is the batting coach for the West Indies Test series. So we are going to see each other a bit in the next two weeks.
We discussed yesterday that that’s where we would start our planning in terms of the brand of cricket we would be playing and those sort of things. I am pretty sure we both will be on the same page when it comes to play a nice positive brand of cricket where guys can fully express themselves. Whichever facet they are confident of executing, they should feel like they have got the full permission to do it. We want the guys to go out there and express themselves fully,” he added.
The IPL 2023 will begin on March 31 and SRH will face RR in their opening match on April 2nd in Hyderabad.