Tony de Zorzi

An attacking batter with an eccentric personality, Tony de Zorzi was earmarked as future leader from a young age.

Schooled in Johannesburg, at King Edward VII, the alma mater of Graeme Smith, Neil McKenzie and Quinton de Kock, de Zorzi led the first team and was also selected as South Africa's captain at the 2016 Under-19 World Cup. But things didn't go as well as he hoped - South Africa finished 11th and de Zorzi's personal returns were scant and he returned home to play club cricket and attempt to start again. He went on to play at the University of Pretoria, under the guidance of former New Zealand international Kruger van Wyk and was contracted by the provincial side Northerns but it was only when he made the move to the Western Cape in the summer of 2020 that his career began to blossom. De Zorzi averaged 48.33 in first-class cricket in the 2021-22 summer and 69.00 in the 2022-23 season, which included a triple-hundred, to force his way into the national plans.

He made his international debut in the summer of 2023 against West Indies in both Tests and ODIs and made the step up to the big stage with confidence. He scored 85 in his third Test innings and an unbeaten 119 in his fourth ODI to lay down a marker to become a more regular fixture for the national team. In particular, his command of the pull shot earned him much praise. De Zorzi captained the South African A side against Sri Lanka in 2023 and also earned a contract at Durban's Super Giants for the second season of the SA20. As one of very few black African batters in South Africa, he carries expectations beyond his own, and consistently dedicates his runs to his mother Natasha, who raised him as a single parent.