Aiden Markram wary of Canada threat as Proteas prepare for T20 World Cup opener

CRICKET in Canada has long only been associated with John Davison, the son of two Australian teachers, who belted the then-fastest World Cup century way back at Centurion in 2003. 

Davison is ironically coach of the Italy team at this T20 World Cup, but will undoubtedly, along with four million Canadians back home, tune into the North American team’s opener against the Proteas in Ahmedabad on Monday (3:30pm start).

Cricket is the fastest growing sport in Canada, having boomed over the last decade, driven by immigration from South Asia and the Caribbean and also the co-hosting of the last T20 World Cup with the US and West Indies two years ago.

Proteas captain Aiden Markram is, therefore, not taking any chances when his team come up against the plucky Canadians, especially as the 2024 runners-up are coming in cold as the two nations have yet to face each other in the shortest format. 

"We haven't played them and we're not 100% sure what to expect and that poses a new challenge," Markram said. "When you play teams consistently you have a pretty good idea of how they approach the game, their plans, the actual players and their abilities.

“I did a bit of homework, so I've got a decent idea now, obviously coming to the World Cup. I didn't know too much, but it's important to do that homework and research on their players, strengths, weaknesses, all those sorts of things.

"From our side, we don't want to put too much emphasis on that. We'd rather focus on our skills, on our plans and executing well and we feel if we're able to do that we give ourselves a good chance."

While the Proteas should expect to start their T20 World Cup campaign on a positive note against the 19th-ranked Canadians, the tournament has already shown on the opening weekend that the Associate Nations cannot be taken lightly.

The Netherlands pushed Pakistan all the way to the last over in Colombo, while India also required a special innings from their captain Suryakumar Yadav (84 not out) after the US had reduced the co-hosts to 77/6.

“Yeah, you don't want to jinx anything,” Markram said. "You look at the games that have already happened, upsets in previous World Cups have happened and the gap between the associate nations now and the other countries has become a lot smaller. 

“We've seen it even now at the start of this World Cup .There's been some close ones and games could have swung either way or it was on a bit of a knife's edge and I think that on its own is actually quite exciting to watch." 

The Proteas’ line-up has virtually been decided with veteran David Miller fit-and firing again leaving a straight shoot-out between Tristan Stubbs and Jason Smith for the all-important No 6 role. Both have shown good form coming into the tournament opener, which has left the powers-that-be with a hard choice to make. 

“It will be between the two of them,” Markram said. “That's still one part we're trying to work out going into tomorrow (Monday).

“Both of them are showing really good signs, they're both hitting the ball really well, playing very impactful knocks, which is what you need at that role so at least whichever way you go you're picking a guy that's in form and hitting the ball well. We'll make that call and I'll take it but the two of them are definitely our No 6 options for now.”

SQUADS FOR AHMEDABAD 

Proteas: Aiden Markram (capt), Corbin Bosch, Dewald Brevis, Quinton de Kock, Marco Jansen, George Linde, Keshav Maharaj, Kwena Maphaka, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Jason Smith, Tristan Stubbs

Canada: Dilpreet Bajwa (C), Ajayveer Hundal, Ansh Patel, Dilon Heyliger, Harsh Thaker, Jaskarandeep Buttar, Kaleem Sana, Kanwarpal Tathgur, Navneet Dhaliwal, Nicholas Kirton, Ravinderpal Singh, Saad Bin Zafar, Shivam Sharma, Shreyas Movva, Yuvraj Samra

Start: 3:30pm