Markram sparkles, but Proteas yet to blossom at IPL

Aiden Markram broke into the top 10 leading run-scorers in this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL), after notching up his fourth half century in six innings on Tuesday night. 

That consistent sequence will come as great relief to the Proteas opener who battled throughout the South African season, with AB de Villiers at one stage saying it looked like Markram was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. 

Markram’s aggregate of 326 runs is the fourth-highest by an overseas player in the 2025 IPL, behind two of his teammates at the Lucknow Super Giants — Australia’s Mitchell Marsh and West Indies’ Nicholas Pooran, with Jos Buttler the other overseas batter in the top 10. 

Markram, Tristan Stubbs at Delhi Capitals and to a lesser extent Ryan Rickelton at the Mumbai Indians have been the outstanding Proteas in what has otherwise been a lean IPL for South African players.   

Markram’s international summer, while not a failure, was also far from successful. He scored just two Test half-centuries, led a T20 side that was constantly in flux and in the Champions Trophy — the premier One-Day tournament on the calendar — his top score was 52.

He remains an important cog in the Proteas' side, not just for his batting, but his leadership credentials, which are valued by both captain Temba Bavuma and coach Shukri Conrad. 

Whatever confidence he can draw from the IPL, will not only stand him in good stead for the World Test Championship (WTC) final at Lord's from June 11, but also for a busy year ahead for the Proteas in the two limited overs formats, starting with the T20 triangular series in Zimbabwe in July. 

With just over half of the IPL’s laborious league phase completed, standout performances by South African players, whose profiles have been boosted by the SA20, are as rare as hen’s teeth. 

Markram’s consistency is laudable, but until Stubbs bashed Rajasthan’s Sandeep Sharma for six in a super over last week, South African players have made little impact in cricket’s most lucrative competition. 

Five of the 17 players contracted to the tournament haven’t played a match, while Donovan Ferreira’s sole appearance came as an impact sub for Delhi Capitals. Gerald Coetzee, Kwena Maphaka and Lungi Ngidi are all nationally contracted by CSA, but have yet to make an appearance for their IPL franchises. 

In Maphaka’s case his lack of match time at such a critical stage in his development is frustrating. His last outing was in February for Paarl Royals, after which he went to Pakistan as a non-playing reserve at the Champions Trophy. Meanwhile his domestic side, the Lions, have completed the Four-Day series and Maphaka has been limited to bowling in the nets in the IPL.

It's the same story for Ngidi (Royal Challengers Bengaluru) and Coetzee (Gujarat Titans). They both spent time sidelined with injuries last season. Cricket SA will be closely monitoring their progress in India, ensuring they increase their bowling loads, whether they play or not, ahead of the WTC final.

Meanwhile Kagiso Rabada, who played just two matches for Gujarat and then returned to South Africa for personal reasons, is expected back in India this week, according to Titans captain Shubman Gill. In his absence the Titans have surged to the top of the table, but with the race for the top four reaching a critical stage and the play-offs to follow, the Titans hope having a refreshed Rabada will be beneficial. 

Marco Jansen has been the busiest of South Africa’s bowlers, featuring in all eight of the Punjab Kings’ matches. He’s taken eight wickets, including a best of 3/17 in a win for the Kings, in which they successfully defended the lowest total in the competition, 111, against Kolkata. 

Stubbs, David Miller, Rickelton and Heinrich Klaasen have — Stubbs' super over heroics aside — performed adequately for their respective teams. Stubbs has been important to Delhi, who have used him more in the latter stages of the innings, wanting him to attack from the get go. 

That doesn’t always suit Stubbs, and is an incredibly fickle spot to play in given his talents. Nevertheless a strike rate of 160.52, especially batting in the latter stages, is valuable. Rickelton has one half century but also three other scores of 20 or more, showing he's getting starts, but has been unable to convert — something that has to change given he opens the innings.

Miller and Klaasen, before his calculated 71 against Mumbai on Wednesday, have had frustrating seasons. Lucknow insist on using Miller strictly as a finisher and as a result his overall statistics look poor — 118 runs in nine innings (with six not outs) and a strike rate of 122.91.

Miller is probably better suited to the No 4 spot but has batted mainly at 5 and 6, with LSG using him mainly in the last five overs. While their top order of Markram, Marsh and Pooran have been outstanding, their captain Rishabh Pant — signed for an IPL record R59.5m — has struggled, leaving Miller in an awkward spot, shifting around the order and to different times in the innings, to allow Pant to find form. 

Klaasen made seven 20-plus scores before his half century against Mumbai, which rescued a Sunrisers Hyderabad team, who, after setting big scoring records last year, have failed to muster the necessary consistency in 2025. They have won just twice and Klaasen, who is yet to agree a national contract with CSA, before Wednesday's knock was facing increasing scrutiny ahead of the second half of the competition. 

Among the players no longer contracted by CSA, both Faf du Plessis and Anrich Nortjé have had their match time hampered by injury. Quinton de Kock, whose form has dropped off a cliff in the last 12 months, was benched by Kolkata after scoring just one half-century in seven matches.