Zander de Bruyn is reminiscent of the late Hansie Cronje at the crease; tall and elegant, the purveyor of crunching drives, but also with a question mark over his ability against fast, short-pitched bowling. And he is a useful medium-paced bowler to boot - able to break partnerships or keep an end tight for a lengthy period. In 2003-04, he emulated the great Barry Richards, by becoming only the second player in South African domestic cricket history to score 1000 runs in a SuperSport Series or Currie Cup season.

Although he excelled at schoolboy level, de Bruyn's career never really got off the ground until he moved to Easterns in 2002, where he joined forces with their ultra-competitive coach - and newly-appointed national team mentor - Ray Jennings. That season, he played a huge role in an improbable Series victory, averaging 60 and scoring 169 in the final as Easterns overturned a first-innings deficit against the international-strength Western Province attack, and he has gone from strength to strength ever since, until earning a call-up for the Test tour of India in November 2004. Despite scoring 83 on debut, he was dropped after only two Tests. He played one more Test for South Africa in a defeat to England in 2004, the same game AB De Villiers and Dale Steyn made their Test debuts. That was enough for de Bruyn to abandon international hopes and throw his lot in with county cricket as a Kolpak. He joined Worcestershire in 2005 without much success initially before moving to Somerset in 2008 where he established himself as a valuable senior player. Surrey signed him in 2010 and having played domestic cricket in England long enough he is now eligible for a British passport.
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