Champions Trophy 2025: South Africa stand-in captain Aiden Markram suffered a hamstring injury on Saturday. (AP)
South Africa’s stand-in captain Aiden Markram suffered a hamstring injury during their last Champions Trophy 2025 league-stage match against England at the National Stadium in Karachi on Saturday.
Leading the team in the absence of Temba Bavuma, who was ruled out of the game due to illness, Markram went off the field in the 31st over due to the discomfort. “Two guys have had illness around the camp, Tony (de Zorsi) and Temba miss out. Unfortunate that they miss out but hopefully they will recover. *Tristan) Stubbs and Klaasen come into the side. Stubbs has a good technique, he will open the batting. Our last game got rained out, we had a few training sessions, we are ready for this game,” Markram had said at the toss.
The 30-year-old Markram will not come out to bat unless required with the extent of his injury still unknown. The dashing right-hander had slammed an unbeaten 52 as South Africa recorded an 106-run win over Afghanistan in the first match of the tournament in Karachi.
Heinrich Klaasen took over the leadership duties from Markram before South Africa shot out England for 179 in 38.2 overs. England’s meagre total meant that South Africa had secured their berth in the semi-finals alongside Australia from Group B, ahead of Afghanistan. Both Australia and South Africa will reportedly travel to Dubai on Saturday night with uncertainty over their knock-out venue in Lahore or the UAE with India qualifying for the semifinals of the tournament hosted by Pakistan.
