The long-term heir to Bavuma's throne? De Zorzi insists such thoughts are 'far away'

Tony de Zorzi's elevation into the Proteas Test side might have been down to a steady rise in provincial cricket over the past few years, as well as some red-hot form this season, but there's a potentially longer game involved here too.

The 26-year-old left-hander, who looked relatively comfortable in crafting 28 in his first ever international innings in last week's first Test against the West Indies in Centurion, has been flagged as captaincy material ever since being selected as SA Schools skipper in 2015.

De Zorzi then led the national Under-19 side in what proved a chastening 2016 World Cup in Bangladesh before settling down for a period, especially after moving to Cape Town in 2020, and was installed as Western Province captain at the start of the season.

Shukri Conrad, the Proteas' red-ball coach, also publicly stated he believes De Zorzi could become a future leader at international level after announcing his first Test squad a few weeks back. 

Not that the man himself is remotely preoccupying himself with such thoughts.

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"To be honest, I haven't had any sort of leadership chats with the people around me in the squad. My first goal is to try and cement my place in the team, wherever that is. I can only do that through sheer weight of runs," said De Zorzi on Monday, ahead of the second Test commencing at the Wanderers on Wednesday. 

"If you're going to be a good leader, you're going to have to lead from the front and that means scoring runs or taking wickets. I can't lay claim to any leadership positions if I didn't make an impact, delivered a few match-winning performances.

"So, it's really not something that I've paid attention