Markram feels ‘no pressure’ on WTC final chances

South Africa's stand-in skipper Aiden Markram is excited by their chances of qualifying for the final of the ICC World Test Championship 2023-25 but feels his sides needs to take it one game at a time.

The Proteas are currently fifth in the nine-team competition with a point percentage (PCT) of 47.62 after beating Bangladesh in the first Test by seven wickets in Mirpur last week.

South Africa have five games left in the ongoing cycle – the second Test against Bangladesh in Chattogram and a couple of two-Test series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan on home soil.

If they defeat the Tigers and then clean sweep Pakistan and Sri Lanka at home, they would end up with a PCT of 69.44, which is better than the current table leaders India's PCT of 62.82.

Even though the outcomes of other series will also come into play, if South Africa win their next five Tests, chances of them playing the final for the very first time is quite high.

Still, Markram did not want to look too far ahead and wanted to keep their feet on the ground.

"I don't think it really adds pressure for us. It's just an exciting opportunity," the South African opener said in yesterday's press conference in Chattogram, which also experienced a power cut.

"So that's almost how we're trying to view it. Probably still need to win a lot of the remaining matches and we've got five left. Five Test matches is a lot of cricket to be played… We can go session by session, game by game and hopefully give ourselves a good chance," he said, adding that he expects a different wicket in Chattogram compared to Mirpur.

"Just based on the nets, there's slightly true bounce, slightly quicker off the wicket. So, we'll look at the wicket now and come to conclusion regarding the team and things like that. It's slightly different from Dhaka as the venues are different from each other," he said.