Internal competition key to SA revival: Nortje
Sticking to the basics and drawing from a larger talent pool, fighting for limited spots in the team has led to South Africa’s resurgence across formats in the past couple years, according to pacer Anrich Nortje. Buoyed by historic achievements, including their World Test Championship title and a maiden appearance in the T20 World Cup final last year, the Proteas have re-established themselves as one of world cricket’s leading forces. South Africa have carried forward the resurgence in the tour of India as they defeated the hosts 2-0 in the Test series, their first win in the country in 25 years.
“The team’s been doing unbelievably well. The way they’ve locked up, there’s some fresh faces, there’s some old faces, guys have been on the fringes for a while, getting to play more cricket, more consistently,” Nortje said on the eve of the fourth T20I against India on Tuesday. Although he has not been part of the Test setup recently, Nortje said the clarity of approach across teams stood out. “I haven’t been with the Test team for a while but just coming in and seeing how basic they keep it, trying to be as basic as possible let the moment play out.”
The fast bowler also attributed South Africa’s white-ball success to clearly defined roles and internal competition.“I can only speak for the white ball team, but on the outside it just looks like the guys are doing really well, getting along very well, and everyone knows their role in the team, and I think that’s very important,” Nortje said.
“There’s a lot of competition as well, which creates opportunity and also creates a little bit of pressure for guys in the team, which is good, which is what you want. “I think that’s something that’s built up over the last year or two as well, and just puts guys under pressure, and a lot of guys have to fight for a spot, which is great, which is what you want.”
Nortje had been sidelined for an extended period due to a recurrence of a stress fracture but returned to the South African side for the ongoing T20I series, where he has gone wicketless in the two matches he has featured in so far. “It’s nice to be back, nice to be back in the Proteas shirt again, really missed it. Sort of happy with the progress, there’s still a lot of cricket to play. We go back into some SA20 as well, which is quite a few games back to back.”
The express pacer said he was focused on gradual improvement rather than instant returns as he continues his comeback. “So, just trying to make progress on every game, trying to improve as much as I can, but just to be realistic as well. So far, I’m really happy with the progress, where I’ve come to, and just trying to build on whatever I can and whatever I’m working on, going forward into the next month or two.”
