How Aiden Markram plans to bounce back? ‘You have to draw a line through it… quick turnaround.. give it another crack again’

India have their tails up after the mammoth win. And Markram who had said prior to the series that the hosts would always field strong teams, said the quick turnaround called for moving on quick and get cracking at the new challenge.

Markram said after Cuttack, “The biggest factor was obviously not being able to build partnerships, settling after losing wickets and getting some momentum on our side. So yeah, we’ll have brief conversations…”

Markram recommended a strikethrough instead. “You don’t want to dive too deep into things like this. You almost just want to draw a line through it and stick to the positive ways of this format,” Markram also said.

On the Cuttack pitch, he had said that it had tennis ball bounce, which shredded their batting. But the skipper was determined to look for positives. “Yeah, I think there were some good signs. It was a ball-in-the-field. Nice to start the way we did. We put some emphasis on starting well, and that was a box we ticked, so we can be proud of that,” he said.

Ticking the finishing box was what he seemed to have forgotten. “From a batting point of view, it’s unfortunately something that can happen in this format. It’s a pity that it had to happen in the first game, but you have to draw a line through it. It’s a quick turnaround and we’ll give it another crack in a couple of days’ time,” said Markram.

Earlier while saying that it was great that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were not part of the T20I side, Markram had noted that others still needed fending off. “No extra plans, I guess. It’s T20 cricket, it’s an entertaining format and that’s the brand we want to play. We want guys to free themselves up, enjoy the game, let their best skills be on show,” Markram, who was part of the T20 side that lost the last World T20 final to India, had reiterated.

Getting India’s most fantastic T20 batter Abhishek Sharma would remain a challenge like he had noted earlier. “I’ve played with Abhi before at Sunrisers, a great guy and bats really well, so no doubt it’s a big wicket for us. Whoever takes the new ball, that’s a challenge to hopefully get him early. He is a match-winner and it’s an important wicket for us,” Markram further said, adding he would obviously not reveal bowling plans to journalists.

Another key batter looking to hot the groove is South Africa’s Trisran Stubbs, someone they want to turn into an all-format player, just like India’s Shubman Gill project. He told Sportsboom.co.za after helping in the Guwahati Test win, “I wasn’t really batting well in that period (early season). I just had no rhythm, no flow. I got a couple of scores, but they were messy scores – there was no real flow. I just couldn’t get into a rhythm. It wasn’t easy, but it’s part of the game. Before the Pakistan series and especially coming to India, I wasn’t too worried because I was batting well in the nets. I hadn’t done that for ages, so I knew it was around the corner.”

Stubbs is one of the three wicketkeepers that afford luxury to Saffers, and sometimes Quinny de Kock and Donovan Ferreira and him all play in the XI.