Sunrisers Hyderabad has appointed Aiden Markram as the captain for the upcoming 2023 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), commencing on March 31.
Aiden Markram, aged 28, led Sunrisers Eastern Cape to victory in the inaugural SA20 tournament, where he finished as the third-highest run-scorer. The Sunrisers franchise needed to appoint a new captain after releasing Kane Williamson before the IPL auction in December 2022. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who had taken over the captaincy from Williamson in the previous season, along with Mayank Agarwal and Markram, were considered for the role. Eventually, Markram was chosen as the captain by the Sunrisers team management, led by Brian Lara, who became the head coach ahead of the auction.
In SA20, Markram demonstrated his excellent batting and captaincy skills while leading Eastern Cape. He scored 369 runs, including a century, at a strike rate of 127 and also picked up 11 wickets with his part-time offspin at an economy rate of 6.19. His performances earned him 596.6 points and topped the Total Impact charts calculated using ESPNcricnfo’s Smart Stats tool.
Sunrisers purchased Markram for INR 2.6 crore at the 2022 auction, where he scored 381 runs in 12 innings with a strike rate of 139.05 and an average of 47.62.
