Anrich Nortje could hardly have asked for a sharper re-introduction. Three overs, four wickets for 13, Paarl Royals bundled out for 49 – the lowest total in SA20 history – and the speedster walking off Boland Park with his best T20 figures since last year’s global tournament.
It was Nortje’s first appearance in South Africa’s domestic league since the inaugural season. Two stress reactions in the back ruled him out of editions two and three and limited him to just two international outings over the past 18 months. Fitness, therefore, has become the only topic that matters to him.
“Hopefully I get selected but for now it’s just to try and build, take it game by game and day by day,” he said after Sunrisers Eastern Cape’s opening-night win. “I had a nice little build up starting with the CSA T20 Challenge and then got the call up for the India series. I’d call it the ideal build up.”
That ‘ideal’ spell of cricket included eight matches in the domestic T20 competition, where he finished joint-fourth on the wicket charts, and two T20Is on the tour of India. He went wicketless on that trip, yet the radar showed his familiar 145-plus kph pace and the control improved in the second game. In Paarl it all clicked.
The selectors name their T20 World Cup squad next week. Nortje, who chose to relinquish his central contract last March to explore the franchise circuit, remains eligible and is very much in the mix. South Africa’s attack has missed his raw pace at successive ICC events – he sat out both the 2023 ODI World Cup and this year’s Champions Trophy – and with the World Cup heading to India and Sri Lanka in 2026, the temptation to bring him straight back is obvious.
If he does make the cut, the real test will be how his body holds up during a packed calendar. SA20’s structure means Sunrisers could play five matches in the first ten days and, should they reach the final, as many as 13 in a month.
“You’ve got to trust your body and you can’t worry about this or that,” Nortje explained. “When something’s wrong then it’s probably too late but, in general, you have to trust your body. You have to trust whatever you have to do in order to get the ball in the right area and you’ve got to know that the work that you do is the right work.”
That work, he says, has largely taken place away from the cameras, in rehabilitation rooms and on sparsely populated training squares. Two lengthy layoffs – October 2024 to April 2025 and May to November this year – have cost him any notion of a proper off-season.
“When I’m out injured, I’m just motivated to get back better and build on what I can remember,” he added. “It’s probably the best time to build up when you’re not injured and you go into an off-season but there’s not really a proper off season anymore. There’s always cricket so you’ve just got to try and remember as much as you can from last season and then take it into the next one.”
Sunrisers coach Adrian Birrell believes Nortje’s current rhythm is encouraging rather than surprising. “He’s done the conditioning, he’s bowled a decent volume, and we’re seeing the benefit,” Birrell said. “As long as he recovers smartly between games there’s no reason he can’t get through a heavy workload.”
Analytically, Nortje’s value is straightforward: genuine pace is still a scarce commodity. In the last SA20 season only Marco Jansen and Gerald Coetzee consistently touched similar speeds; neither offers Nortje’s late-innings yorker. South Africa’s T20 side has lacked that extra gear at the death, conceding more than ten an over in the last five overs across the India series. Selectors know those margins matter in World Cup knock-outs.
For now the pacer is content to let the ball make his argument. Another fortnight of wickets in Gqeberha, Johannesburg and Cape Town should be enough to secure the flight east. After everything his back has endured, Nortje says selection would be a bonus. What he really wants is a clear run of cricket – something he has waited nearly two years to enjoy.
