With the retirement of AB De Villiers from international cricket, the number four spot of South Africa is now vacant. While there is no way that De Villiers could be directly replaced, Aiden Markram has put his hand up to bat at number four.

Markram opens for the Proteas in Tests and has a great average of 55.55 after 10 matches. His ODI career, however, has not been as great as he has scored only 193 runs from 7 matches with an average of 27.57.

With Quinton De Kock and Hashim Amla as the set openers for South Africa in ODIs, Markram is willing to bat at number four – a position where he has batted in only a handful of times.

"It's a little bit foreign to me, having opened for most of my life, but there have been a few white ball games with the Titans and in the Indian series where I have batted at No 4," Markram told Sport24.

"It's a little bit different, but at the end of the day it's the ball and the situation you've got to play. If I ever got given that opportunity I would take it with open arms."

Despite the fact that he is eying De Villiers’ position, he is under no illusion of replacing the man because there simply can’t be another player like Mr 360 ever again.

This is why Markram is of the opinion that no matter who takes up the spot, they should try to make it their own in their own unique way.

"I don't think it's a case of trying to find the next AB de Villiers because we will never manage to find another player like that," he said.

"It's still quite important that whoever does fill that role makes it their own and plays their own game in that role.

"Whether you get the job done like AB does or whoever ... as long as the job gets done.”

The youngster believes that filling up the void of De Villiers is going to give selectors a lot headache because of the number of quality players coming through the ranks.

"It's going to be an interesting selection headache because there are a lot of good players coming through.