SA20, 2026 Kavya Maran took a big decision regarding Aden Markram before the mega auction of the tournament (photo- Pankaj Nangia/Getty Images)
Kavya Maran has removed many players from her team. No, we are not talking about his IPL team Sunrisers Hyderabad here. Rather, by saying so, we mean his team playing in SA20 from Sunrisers Eastern Cape. By the way, this team is two -time champion in SA 20. It won the title in 2023 and 2024. While this team was runner-up in 2025, now before the season in the next year i.e. 2026, his mistress Kavya Maran is seen in the mood for some change in the team. It has started its debut by excluding many players, in which the name of Captain Aidan Markram, who made the champion 2 times, is also named.
Aidan Markram himself took a big decision
Now the question is why Aidan Markram was excluded? So the answer has also been received. Sunrisers will head the Eastern Cape in the Auction of Aden Markram SA20, 2026. He himself has taken this decision. This means that in the auction to be held on 9 September, he will choose the players of Eastern Cape. So far this franchise has retained Triston Stabs while Adam Milne has pre-entered Johnny Bairstow and AM Gajanfar. Marco Janson has been included in the team in the wild card entry. Sunrisers can include Markram back to the team using franchise right to match card.
Many players are expected to be bid in SA20, 2026. There are many big names including Rashid Khan, Sunil Narayan, Andre Russell, Joss Butler, Nicholas Puran in the list of foreign players.
Aidan Markram has done well in captaincy as well as batting. He has scored 967 runs in 34 innings of 36 matches at an average of 34.53 in the 36 innings of 36 matches playing for the Sunrisers team in the SA20. He has also scored a century. Markram was the third highest run -scorer in the 2025 season.
Salary cap also increased
The first season of this tournament was played in 2022. Now after 2022, the auction of 2026 season will be the largest in which 72 out of a total of 102 players will be available for 6 franchisees. The salary cap has been increased from 39.1 million rand (about 19 crore rupees) to 41 million rands (about 19 crore 95 lakh rupees).
