“It’s important to develop a power game that I can go to earlier on,” said Proteas batsman, Aiden Markram, ahead of the second T20 between South Africa and Ireland.

Currently entrusted with batting at number 4, Markram is focusing on his power game to ensure he can accelerate even when he has not spent a lot of time in the middle. “I need to put a lot of work into the power-hitting side of things and potentially go to that when I haven’t faced a lot of balls.”

Typically viewed as an opener, Markram has had conversations with Mark Boucher and Temba Bavuma regarding the roles they can see him perform. “I’ve spoken a bit to the coach and Temba as well about the potential roles they see me or give me a chance in,” said Markram.

Over the last two series, South Africa’s most significant challenge has been to score heavily in the last five overs. “One thing on our part that we have discussed is if you look back, a lot of the time we were losing an ‘in’ batter going into the last five overs of the innings. It makes it tough for the new guy coming in to hit a quick 30 off 10 balls.”

In addition to ensuring that South Africa have a set batsman going into the last five overs, the team management is committed to up-skilling the tail, including George Linde and Kagiso Rabada. “Guys like George and KG have been hitting lots of balls. We’ve got a lot of faith in them. KG proved it in the previous game and George has proven it many times at the franchise level that they’re really good ball strikers.”

Having played the first T20 at the Malahide Cricket Club Ground, the next two T20s are at the Civil Service Cricket Club in Stormont, Belfast. Markram expects the pitch to produce high-scoring games, given it is a fresh wicket with a fair covering of grass. “Looking at this wicket, it’s a lot fresher. Not too much green grass on it, but definitely an even covering of grass and might be a bit more bounce on the wicket.”