South Africa’s schedule of a two-match Test series throughout the World Test Championship has a lot of benefits in preparing them, which could come in handy in a one-off final as well.
“A lot of our series have been two-game series, so in order to win, you can’t start slow. That’s helped us along the way,” Markram said after South Africa’s first training session at Lord’s. “We know the importance of starting well, trying to get ahead of the game early and how important each session is going to be. There’s no second dip at it. We have to make sure we hit the ground running and are nice and sharp come day one.”
“The few of us that have been a part of previous ICC events that didn’t go our way have chatted to each other and made sure we’ve buried it and taken some good lessons from it. When you’re opening the batting, obviously your responsibility is to calm the changing room down, get the team off to a good start and get us ahead of the game,” he said. “That’s the challenge, that’s what excites us. When you’re preparing against your bowlers who are world-class, it can only help you as a batter, as uncomfortable as it can be at times. But that’s the gauge – that you judge where your game is at.”
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At Lord’s on Sunday, Aiden Markram took on Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen for a lengthy time, and with five fifties from 13 innings at the IPL, he believes himself to be in good form as well.
“I’m feeling good. I feel like I’m moving well,” he said. “The IPL is obviously a completely different format but it was nice to come into a game feeling good. I’m pleased to be in that headspace at the moment and when you’re feeling like this, it’s really about cashing in and trying to make a difference for the team.”
Meanwhile, Aiden Markram also has the experience of being the only other captain to lead South Africa in an ICC event final this millennium, and he has done it twice as well. However, Markram led the South Africa U-19 in the age-group World Cup in 2014 and last year during the final of the T20 World Cup in Barbados as well.
“It has a different feeling, to be very honest,” Markram said. “I think because it’s a one-off game and there hasn’t been a consecutive build-up to it, it does feel slightly different, at least for the time being. Maybe the night before, all of a sudden, it might all align. But for now, it’s got a different feel about it. Also, knowing it’s multiple days of cricket, not just three hours and it’s done.”
“It’s about each guy making sure that they don’t peak too early and get too excited too early, because then you end up draining yourself. So, managing your loads at training, managing specifics at training, instead of trying to flush everything out in one session, have that gradual build-up so that by the time you get to day one, you feel like you’ve ticked every box, but it hasn’t been at 100 miles an hour. We have to respect the Test match format. It takes a lot out of you from an energy point of view and a psychological point of view. We need to be fresh and ready to go on day one,” Aiden Markram concluded.
