Nandre Burger: The smiling South African quick defying calls for more menace

Nandre Burger ticks about every box possible for a menacingly fast strike bowler.

A left-armer, he can bring the ball back into the right-hander – as he did to bowl a set KL Rahul in South Africa’s innings win over India last week – and he can shape it away.

There’s just one part of his game that doesn’t fit the stereotype.

“I can’t help that I’m mostly always smiling on the field,” he tells the BBC before the second and final Test against India. “It’s who I am. I’m not trying to be like anyone else.”

It’s true. Burger’s smile is ubiquitous. Watching him, one might assume he was representing a village side famed for its generous lunches rather than a nation that has produced the likes of Allan Donald, Andre Nel and Dale Steyn.

Another South African, albeit one who represented and captained England, took issue with Burger’s beaming grins.

Writing on X, Kevin Pietersen noted: “I like Nandre Burger. I like his pace a lot. The only thing I’d like even more, is if he didn’t smile as much and got more aggressive! Smiling at batters gives them a small win every single time. Bowl fast, seriously fast and DO NOT smile after most deliveries!”

Burger does not have an active presence on social media but plenty of friends shared Pietersen’s post with him.

“It doesn’t bother me at all,” he says with a laugh. “Just because I’m smiling and enjoying what I’m doing doesn’t mean I’m not aggressive with the ball. It doesn’t mean I’m happy to lose or get hit for runs.

“I’ve had days where I lost my cool. It will be a day where I feel that I have to pick a fight to be at my best. That might be throwing the ball towards the batter to rev myself up. But there are more days where I’m in the battle regardless so I might as well enjoy it.”

Perhaps this mindset is a consequence of Burger’s unorthodox entry into elite cricket. Growing up in Krugersdorp to the north-west of Johannesburg, he played a variety of sports, including cricket and rugby, but tennis and squash were his primary loves.

It was only a casual net while studying a sports psychology degree at the University of the Witwatersrand that set him on a new course. Watching from the side was the former first-class cricketer Neil Levenson, who spotted something worth getting excited about.

“I was raw,” Burger remembers. “But Neil told me I could become a professional cricketer. I didn’t really believe it but it was amazing to hear. After speaking with him I decided to give it a big push and that’s when it started.”

But Burger was a difficult student. He’d push back and argue. He didn’t understand why Levenson had him running to the wicket without a ball, or delivering one while blindfolded. Adjustments to his feet, his wrists and his hands felt like unnecessarily work. All he wanted to do was bowl fast.

Still, steady improvements meant he was a project worth investing in. And given his unique attributes, his potential was exponentially higher than his peers.

South Africa might be a breeding ground for fast bowlers but it is a comparative desert when it comes to left-arm seamers. Between the Proteas being welcomed back into international cricket in 1991 following the end of apartheid, and Marco Jansen – another left-arm seamer in the team – making his debut on Boxing Day 30 years later, South African southpaws took just 68 Test wickets.

South Africa’s most prolific left-arm seamer over this period was the blistering Brett Schultz, but injuries restricted his career to just nine Tests worth 37 wickets. Wayne Parnell, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Beuran Hendricks and Charl Willoughby played a mere 14 games between them.

Now the Proteas have two of these rare weapons in their ranks. Along with the generational talent that is Kagiso Rabada, as well as arguably South Africa’s best-ever spinner in Keshav Maharaj, not to mention the express pace of the injured Anrich Nortje, the Proteas have an arsenal as potent as any in the game.

Which makes the lack of upcoming Test cricket in the country all the more heartbreaking for fans of the swinging, seaming and spitting red ball.

Cricket South Africa are sending a diluted team to New Zealand for a two-Test series as their household names remain at home for the SA20 franchise league in January. Not that Burger has given much thought about any of that.

“I am the worst person to ask about any sort of schedule,” he admits. “I know the week before that we’re playing a game. I’m not too much of a thinker about what next week, or next month or next year comes. Especially with cricket. I try not to think about it too much when I’m not playing.

“But it has been difficult for South Africa. And it doesn’t seem like it’s getting better. But by showing we can compete with the big teams like India, if we can beat them then they’ll want to play against us. That’s how you make sure everyone wants to play you. By being the best and competing.

“That is what it’s about. We’re taking it day by day. You never know when you’ll get the chance again.”

And maybe that’s why he plays his cricket with a smile on his face.