Duminy has been appointed on a permanent basis whereas Kleinveldt has come in only for the West Indies series for now.
Markram led South Africa’s under-19 side to victory at the age-group World Cup in 2014 and more recently, was at the helm of Sunrisers Eastern Cape, who won inaugural SA20 title. He has also been named captain of the Sunrisers Hyderabad for the upcoming IPL and Walter sees the national leadership as a natural progression for Markram.
“Aiden has shown himself to be a leader over a period of time now. Obviously his most recent success for the Sunrises stands out so it seemed like just a logical progression into the leadership of the national side,” Walter said, at a press conference in Johannesburg. “He has been there before but I think he’s matured a lot as a player and as a leader since then.”
This is Markram’s second foray into leading the senior side after he captained them in an ODI series against India in February 2018, in the absence of an injured du Plessis. Then, the captaincy negatively affected his batting and he scored 118 runs in five matches at 23.60.
As for Bavuma, who stepped down as T20 captain to take over the Test leadership recently, Walter indicated the shortest format door is not closed to him. “It was purely a T20 performance-based decision” Walter said. “My job now is to work with him to get him back into the side. That’ll certainly be one of our focuses.”
Bavuma had a tough 2022 in the T20 format, and got into double figures only five times in 12 innings. He led South Africa at the last two T20I World Cups, in 2021 and 2022, and they failed to reach the semi-finals in both. Bavuma also faced criticism over his strike-rate, which sits at 116.08 and was not bought at the SA20 auction but got a deal with Sunrisers Eastern Cape as a replacement player later in the tournament, by which point he scored a series-winning century against England in a World Cup Super League ODI.
Walter was still in New Zealand at the time, where he coached the Central Stags, and the ODI team was under the command of new Test coach Shukri Conrad, who introduced a more aggressive style of play which Walter endorses and will build on. “The way that you saw the ODI side play against England was how we’d like the team to play going forward,” Walter said.
There is still no room for 19-year old batting sensation Dewald Brevis, who was the leading run-scorer at last year’s age-group World Cup, and has experience in the IPL, CPL and SA20. Walter had indicated Brevis needs to be bide his time before making the step up. “He forms part of a category of young exciting cricketers that are that are in the system. The job and the journey with him will be exactly the same as it is for the others in trying to find opportunities that below the Proteas level to give him access to,” Walter said. “The SA20 would have given him some insight as to the areas that he needs to develop in his game, along with many others. There’s an x-factor that is exciting and now we just need to give him the foundations and the pathway to grow.”
South Africa then play three T20Is against West Indies before ending the summer with two must-win ODIs against Netherlands in the World Cup Super League. If South Africa win both games and Sri Lanka win one match or fewer in their three-match series against New Zealand, South Africa will secure automatic qualification for the 2023 World Cup. “Hopefully the Blackcaps do what they need to do and and secure that series and then we still have to take care of our business,” Walter said. “Everything else becomes irrelevant if we don’t take take care of that first.”
The matches against Netherlands take place on March 31 and April 2 and clash with the opening matches of the IPL. CSA’s director of cricket, Enoch Nkwe, confirmed that the South African contracted players who are part of the IPL will be available for national duty before leaving for the tournament. “As it stands, they are available,” Nkwe said. “We have been engaged with the IPL and the BCCI as well, so the selected players will be available for the two ODIs.”
South Africa’s T20I squad for West Indies series: Aiden Markram (capt), Quinton de Kock , Bjorn Fortuin, Reeza Hendricks, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen, Sisanda Magala, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Wayne Parnell, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Tabraiz Shamsi, Tristan Stubbs.
Squad for first two ODIs: Temba Bavuma (capt), Gerald Coetzee, Quinton de Kock, Tony de Zorzi, Bjorn Fortuin, Reeza Hendricks, Sisanda Magala, Keshav Maharaj, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Ryan Rickelton, Andile Phehlukwayo, Tristan Stubbs, Lizaad Williams, Rassie van der Dussen