Aiden Markram has completely transformed his T20 game.
There has been a wave of improved T20 cricketers lately. Think of Tim David, Jason Holder, and Tim Seifert. But one player who has blended his eternal class with consistency is South Africa’s Aiden Markram.
He has progressed in every aspect since last year or so, but his T20 game has gone a few notches higher. Skills have never been an issue for Markram; now, he has found a way to use them in an otherwise tricky format for traditional players. This is his best T20 version.
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Since 2025, the South Africa captain has 1671 runs at an average of 37.97 and a strike rate of 149.32 in 51 T20 innings. This includes 14 fifties and a century. Between 2023 and 2024, Markram had 1661 runs, averaging just 25.95 and striking at a mere 130.27 across 74 outings, with four half-centuries and a hundred.
A major reason for his immense success has been his shift to the opening spot – a role he has aced in recent times across formats. Since last year, Markram has opened around 60.78% of total innings, with an average of 40.17 and a strike rate of 161.40. He has hit a boundary every 4.32 deliveries and scored 11 of his 50+ scores at the top.
Previously, Markram opened only once between 2023 and 2024, with 66.21% of his total innings at No.4 or below. That didn’t allow him to play his natural game, since he can be a slow starter when the field is spread. It was again due to lack of intent, an area he has worked on excessively since his rejuvenation.
Improvements have been visible even outside the top spot, but his best still comes while opening. It comes naturally to him because of his overall style, and powerplay allows him to find the fence more easily, which gets him going. So, the Protea batter doesn’t get stuck early in the innings, and once a few runs come, he is simply too skilled to miss out on manoeuvring the fields outside the field restrictions.
Pace has never been an issue for Aiden Markram, which is unsurprising since he plays on fast, bouncy South African decks. But recently, he has added another layer to his pace game, going more on aerial routes than before. Boundary-hitting has increased massively since.
Markram has a strike rate of 160.46 and a balls-per-boundary ratio of 4.16 against pacers since last year. He has played only 34.26% dot balls in this period. Between 2023 and 2024, he struck at 134.43 and took as many as 5.76 deliveries for every boundary against fast bowlers.
He has been hitting hard lengths with amazing ease, with his lofted shots in front of the square proving very effective. Take his West Indies knock, for instance: Jason Holder’s deliveries climb on the batters, and the Ahmedabad deck further yielded in more bounce. He still managed to hit a slower back-of-a-length delivery over mid-on region off the front foot for a boundary.
Later, he treated Matthew Forde with the same intensity, hitting his non-fuller deliveries from the front foot for a boundary. Aiden Markram has strong wrists and a bottom hand to generate power and play as straight as possible. He has combined it with more aggression and intent to become one of the finest T20 openers in world cricket at the moment.
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