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South Africa coach Ottis Gibson has insinuated that stand-in-skipper Aiden Markram's batting form might have suffered due to the responsibility around captaincy.
Markram was named the Proteas captain in the absence of regular skipper Faf du Plessis, who was ruled out of the ongoing ODI series against Indian and the T20I series following it.
Unfortunately, in the role of captain, the right-handed opener has scored only 103 runs in the five innings, with scores of 9, 8, 32, 22 and 32.
Speaking about Markram's form, Gibson said that that the 23-year-old has earlier shown what he is capable of but is currently batting out of his style.
"I don't know if the whole responsibility around captaining has been too much for him but it seems he is trying to bat in a way that is not the Aiden Markram I saw in September. I've spoken to him about that," the Sport24 quoted Gibson as saying.
However, he added that the decision to put Markram in the role of captain was right.
"This was a decision for the future, not a decision for now. Aiden has shown all the hallmarks of someone who is going to be a good leader, and with Faf out, we thought we could give him the opportunity," Gibson said.
He further said, "Looking back I think it was the right decision, I'm not going to second-guess myself."
Markram has one more chance left in the ongoing series to get back his form when South Africa meet India for the sixth and final ODI on Friday at Centurion.
IMAGE: Aiden Markram
Photograph: CSA/Twitter