With the Test series against India starting in a few days time, South African batsman Aiden Markram believes that it is time for the young players to take responsibility.

Markram played a brilliant knock of 161 against India A in the second unofficial Test facing bowlers like Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Siraj. Although, he knows that the pitches for the Test series will be tougher to bat on and the senior side possesses spinners of the highest quality in Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja alongside Kuldeep.

He told Sportstar, “It was nice to spend time at the crease. Being successful comes down to having self-confidence, which you gain from playing good knocks like this one. But I’m under no illusions that the pitches for the Tests will be as batting-friendly as this one. It’s time for me and other younger guys to play with more responsibility and start winning games for South Africa. We cannot continue to play the fearless and expressive cricket that we did before.”

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The 24-year-old caught the eye of the public in the U-19 World Cup after some brilliant performances and soon earned his place in the national Test side. He once again performed well with scores above 90 against Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and India. Not a long time after that, he got an opportunity to lead the South African ODI side in the absence of Faf du Plessis.

“When you are young, you expect things to happen a lot quicker. I didn’t get a contract, so I was forced to play ‘B’ side cricket. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I learnt a lot, especially about red-ball cricket. I never thought my career would shape like this. It’s a dream to represent my country, never mind to captain it. The captaincy took me by surprise; it’s a massive privilege. There have been quite a few lows and highs in this short time,” Markram said.

(With inputs from Sportstar)