Aiden Markram has been named the captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad for IPL 2023. He will replace Kane Williamson, who was named after the last season.

Markram, 28, recently led the Eastern Cape Sunrisers to the SA20 premiership, where he finished as the league's third-leading scorer.

Sunrisers will step into the leadership role after dropping Kane Williamson ahead of the IPL auction last December. The first player retained by the franchises ahead of the mega tournament in 2022, Williamson struggled for form as Sunrisers failed to qualify for the playoffs last season ending eight. Williamson missed the final match of the tournament last year to return to New Zealand for the birth of his child, after which Bhuvneshwar Kumar took over.

It is understood that Bhuvneshwar, who has been with the franchise since its inception in 2013, along with Mayank Agarwal (who was bought in the December auction) and Markram are among the contenders for the top spot. Markram was selected for the job by the management of the Sunrisers team, which is headed by Brian Lara, who was appointed as the head coach ahead of the price.

In the SA20, Markram showed that he can excel as a leading batsman while leading the Eastern Cape. Scoring 369 runs in 127 runs including a century, Markram also claimed 11 wickets at a save of 6.19 in his short spell - enough to score 596.6 runs and top the scoring charts. Total impact calculated using ESPNcricinfo's Smart Stats tool.

Sunrisers paid INR 2.6 crore to buy Markram in the 2022 auction. During that season, Markram scored 381 runs over 12 innings at a 139.05 strike rate and 47.62 batting average.