Sunrisers Eastern Cape Retained and Pre-Signed Players Full List For SA20 2024
Aiden Markram will lead Sunrisers Eastern Cape (Twitter)
The second season of the SA20 is just around the corner and after the success of the first season, Cricket South Africa (CSA) is gearing up for another blockbuster season. The auction for the second season will take place on 27th of September and before the all-important auction, the six teams have released their preliminary squads. All the squads include great blend of domestic South African talent and overseas stars, and it promises to be another cracking season.
So, let us now look at how the Eastern Cape Sunrisers, the inaugural champions have crafted their preliminary squad ahead of the auction of the second season of SA20.
Sunrisers Eastern Cape - Retained Players
| Players | Status | Nationality |
|---|---|---|
| Aiden Markram | Pre-sign | South Africa |
| Ottniel Baartman | Pre-sign | South Africa |
| Liam Dawson | Pre-sign | England |
| Dawid Malan | Pre-sign | England |
| Marco Jansen | Retained | South Africa |
| Tristan Stubbs | Retained | South Africa |
| Sisanda Magala | Retained | South Africa |
| Brydon Carse | Retained | England |
| Simon Harmer | Trade in | South Africa |
| Temba Bavuma | Retained | South Africa |
| Sarel Erwee | Retained | South Africa |
| Jordan Hermann | Retained | South Africa |
| Aya Gqamane | Retained | South Africa |
| Adam Rossington | Retained | England |
| Tom Abell | Retained | England |
| Craig Overton | Wildcard | England |
Aiden Markram is the leader of the side and produced a brilliant all-round performance in the first edition. He is one of the four pre-sign players, other three are Ottniel Baartman, Liam Dawson and Dawid Malan. They have retained the core of their championship winning squad as well with the likes of Marco Jansen, Sisanda Magala, Brydon Carse forming a strong bowling attack.
South Africa's current ODI and Test skipper Temba Bavuma along with Adam Rossington formed a strong opening pair last time around, and both of them have been retained. However, experienced duo of JJ Smuts and Roelof van der Merwe are not in the squad. The young talents like Tristan Stubbs and Jordan Hermann have been retained too while Craig Overton has been included as a wildcard entry.
There has been an increase of R5.1 million in the auction purse with each team having R39.1 million in their kitty. The available purse for Sunrisers Easter Cape is now R1.865 million and it would be interesting to see their auction strategy on the all-important date of 27th of September.
 "Aashay Chopade")