The Punjab Kings have roped in South Africa Aiden Markram as a replacement for England’s Dawid Malan for the remainder of the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League.
Malan has pulled himself out of the tournament supposedly due to an extended period in biosecure bubbles in IPL which will be followed by T20 World Cup and Ashes series.
Markram has been in red-hot form in the white-ball format for the Proteas in the recent past. He started the ongoing tour of Sri Lanka with a bang and scored a brilliant 96 against the hosts. He followed with another brilliant knock of 48 in the first T20I of the series to set up a big total on the board for the Proteas.
Malan bats at number three or open for England in T20I cricket and his role was similar in the Punjab Kings as well. Markram is also a top-order batsman and could be seen as a like for like replacement for Malan, who struggled to get the balls off the square in the only opportunity he got in the first part of the tournament.
Markram has played 33 T20I and has a strike rate in excess of 150 runs per 100 balls and average more than 33 runs per game to show for his class and the Kings will be looking forward to strengthening the top order in case the ‘Universe Boss’ Chris Gayle fails to make the cut.