Tony de Zorzi career profile at a glance
- Full name: Tony de Zorzi
- Born: 28 August 1997 (Cricket South Africa)
- Role: left-handed top-order batter; the ICC also lists him as an off-break bowler
- Domestic team: Western Province
- SA20 franchise: Durban’s Super Giants
- Test debut: v West Indies, SuperSport Park, Centurion, 28 February 2023
- ODI debut: v West Indies, Buffalo Park, East London, 18 March 2023
- T20I debut: v Pakistan, Rawalpindi, 28 October 2025
- Test record, as at 12 November 2026: two centuries, highest score 177. Neither Cricket South Africa nor the ICC publishes a career table on its player page, so ScoreLine does not quote match and run totals here.
- International centuries: 177 v Bangladesh, Chattogram, 2024 (Test); 104 v Pakistan, Lahore, 2025 (Test); 119 not out v India, Gqeberha, 2023 (ODI)
Introduction
Some batters kick the door down. Tony de Zorzi has spent most of his Test career knocking politely, then batting for a very long time once it opens. The left-hander from Western Province, a former South Africa Under-19 captain with an unbeaten 304 to his name at Newlands, is back in the Proteas Test squad for the Bangladesh Test series, against the side he made his highest Test score against. This page is the record: where he came from, what he has done, and where he stands as at 12 November 2026.
Early life and background
De Zorzi grew up in Johannesburg and went to King Edward VII School, better known as KES, TimesLIVE reported in 2023. From there the cricket took him up the N1. Cricket South Africa describes him as a product of the University of Pretoria and the Titans franchise, and he played his club cricket in Northerns for Tuks.
He captained South Africa at the 2016 Under-19 World Cup, according to the same TimesLIVE report, which noted that Wiaan Mulder, later his Test teammate, was the bigger name in that side. Leading a junior World Cup team guarantees nothing, but it showed early how selectors saw him.
Domestic and franchise career
His first-class grounding came with the Titans. He later moved to Cape Town and Western Province, a switch he told TimesLIVE had helped his game grow, with senior players in that dressing room guiding him.
The innings that made people sit up came at Newlands in November 2022. Playing for Western Province against the Knights in the 4-Day Series, De Zorzi made 304 not out from 381 balls, with 28 fours and seven sixes. SuperSport reported it as the highest individual first-class score in the history of the ground at that time. Western Province declared on 575 for 7 and won by an innings and 155 runs. A triple century is rare enough. One that sets up an innings win is a statement.
He has kept scoring for Western Province. In March 2025 he made 141 against Boland at Newlands, and Cricket South Africa’s team page names him among the side’s leading players for the 2025/26 campaign.
In the SA20 he plays for Durban’s Super Giants, who had him in their squad for season four in 2025/26 and again ahead of season five. IANS reported that he joined them after a match-winning 78 for Sunrisers Eastern Cape in a qualifier.
International career
De Zorzi’s Test debut came on 28 February 2023 against West Indies at SuperSport Park in Centurion, batting at No. 3 in Shukri Conrad’s first Test as Test coach. The Sowetan reported that Conrad had already mentioned him as a possible future captain.
A week later he was at the Wanderers for the second Test, and on day one he made 85, his first Test half-century. He was disappointed to miss a hundred, but his reaction was patient. “You have to wait for your chance and hopefully when you get it, you take it,” he told TimesLIVE.
His one-day career began on 18 March 2023, in the second ODI against West Indies at Buffalo Park in East London. He was one of four South Africans capped that day, alongside Tristan Stubbs, Gerald Coetzee and Ryan Rickelton. His first ODI century followed in December 2023 at St George’s Park in Gqeberha: 119 not out from 122 balls against India, after South Africa had bowled India out for 211. South Africa won by eight wickets to level the series 1-1.
The Test hundred took longer, and it was worth the wait. In the second Test against Bangladesh in Chattogram, starting on 29 October 2024, De Zorzi made 177. He and Stubbs put on 201 for the second wicket, and Stubbs and Mulder also made their first Test centuries in the same innings, which Wisden described as only the second time that had happened in Test cricket, after West Indies in Delhi in 1948. South Africa declared on 575 for 6 and won by an innings and 273 runs to take the series 2-0, their first Test series win in the subcontinent since 2014, as TimesLIVE noted.
In May 2025 he was named in South Africa’s 15-man squad for the World Test Championship final against Australia at Lord’s. South Africa won the final by five wickets in June. Business Day later reported that De Zorzi did not play in the match itself.
His second Test century came in Lahore in October 2025: 104 in the first innings of the first Test against Pakistan. The Pakistan Cricket Board’s report records that Pakistan won that Test by 93 runs. The Sunday Independent noted that he was the only batter to score a century across the two-Test series.
Later that month, on 28 October 2025 in Rawalpindi, he won his first T20I cap. He made 33 from 16 balls as South Africa beat Pakistan by 55 runs.
Injury has interrupted him since. In January 2026 Cricket South Africa announced that a right hamstring muscle tear, suffered during the ODI series against India the previous month, had ruled him out of the T20I series against West Indies and the T20 World Cup. In October 2026 a hamstring injury kept him out of the Test series against Australia, the series in which South Africa came from behind to climb to No. 1, which our Beyond the Score on the Newlands decider covers in full.
Playing style
De Zorzi is a top-order batter who builds an innings rather than rushes it. Cricket South Africa’s profile describes a composed left-hander with a sound technique, a taste for long innings, and highlights his strokeplay through the off side. His record bears that out. Both his Test centuries came in Asia, in Chattogram and Lahore, and the Sunday Independent has called him one of the Proteas’ best players of spin.
He can move through the gears when the format asks. His maiden ODI hundred came at almost a run a ball, and his T20I debut brought 33 from 16 deliveries. The ICC lists him as an off-break bowler, but at international level his job is runs at the top of the order.
Honours and records
- Member of South Africa’s squad for the World Test Championship final at Lord’s in June 2025, which South Africa won by five wickets
- 304 not out for Western Province against the Knights at Newlands, November 2022, which SuperSport reported as the highest individual first-class score at the ground at the time
- Captain of South Africa at the 2016 Under-19 World Cup
- One of three South Africans to make a maiden Test century in the same innings, against Bangladesh in Chattogram in 2024
- Maiden ODI century: 119 not out against India in Gqeberha, December 2023
Where he is now
As at 12 November 2026, De Zorzi is in the 15-man Proteas squad for the Bangladesh Test series, which Cricket South Africa named on 2 November. CSA said he had recovered from the hamstring injury that cost him the Australia series. The players he joins include captain Temba Bavuma, Kagiso Rabada and Keshav Maharaj, and our analysis of the squad looks at what the selections say.
CSA said the squad would assemble in Johannesburg on Wednesday 11 November. The first Test begins on Sunday 15 November at the Wanderers, the ground where he made his first Test fifty, with play from 10:00 SAST. The second begins on Monday 23 November at SuperSport Park in Centurion, also from 10:00 SAST.
CSA has not named the XI for the first Test. Whether De Zorzi plays is the selectors’ decision, and it had not been announced when this page was written.
Frequently asked questions
How old is Tony de Zorzi?
Tony de Zorzi was born on 28 August 1997, according to Cricket South Africa. That makes him 29 as at 12 November 2026.
What is Tony de Zorzi’s highest Test score?
His highest Test score is 177, made against Bangladesh in the second Test in Chattogram in October 2024. It was his first Test century, and South Africa won the match by an innings and 273 runs.
Has Tony de Zorzi scored a triple century?
Yes. He made 304 not out for Western Province against the Knights at Newlands in November 2022, from 381 balls. Western Province went on to win by an innings and 155 runs.
Which teams does Tony de Zorzi play for?
He plays domestic cricket for Western Province and plays for Durban’s Super Giants in the SA20. Internationally he has played Tests, ODIs and T20Is for South Africa.
Is Tony de Zorzi playing in the first Test against Bangladesh?
He is in the 15-man squad for the Bangladesh Test series, named by Cricket South Africa on 2 November 2026. CSA has not yet named the XI for the first Test, which begins at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on 15 November, with play from 10:00 SAST.