IPL is a chance for South Africans to see their lesser-spotted players

Hello strangers! South Africans have forgotten what they look like, but not who they are. Quinton de Kock and Anrich Nortje, that is, who haven't played for their national team since the T20 World Cup final in Barbados in June.

South Africa have since been on the field 33 times - in eight Tests, 14 ODIs and 11 T20Is - without them. Yet De Kock has played 35 games for three other teams in that time and Nortje has been in 23 matches for four sides. Like they were in Mohali on Tuesday, live and in full colour and turning out for Kolkata Knight Riders against Punjab Kings in the IPL. Of course, it's complicated.

De Kock retired from Tests in December 2021 - during the throes of a home series against India, no less - and from ODIs after the 2023 World Cup. His T20I status remains murky.

South Africa's soon-to-be former white-ball coach, Rob Walter, told a press conference in September: "For the next while there'll be no conversations between myself and Quinny as to whether he wants to play for South Africa again. I've left the door open for him to approach me if and when he wants to do that.

"And that might never happen. Or there might be a conversation, and that conversation doesn't mean it'll lead to him being selected. He played for South Africa for a very long time, and in a lot of World Cups. So we have to allow him the space to work through that, to play league cricket and to do what he needs to do."

Walter has resigned, effective the end of this month. Maybe his successor, tipped to be current Test-only coach Shukri Conrad - a noted player whisperer - can talk De Kock back into the T20I fold.

Nortje declined a CSA contract in March 2024. It is understood he told the board at the time he wanted to focus on franchise cricket and T20Is, with a view to returning to ODIs towards the end of last year. True to his word, he was in both squads for the white-ball series against Pakistan in December - only to have his toe broken while batting in the nets facing, of all people, David Miller. Nortje recovered in time to be included in South Africa's Champions Trophy squad in January. Two days later he was ruled out with a back injury.

He last played a Test in March 2023 and has missed South Africa's last 13 matches in the format. Could Conrad whisper him back into whites for the WTC final against Australia at Lord's in June?

Because of his back, Tuesday's match was Nortje's first of any kind since the Abu Dhabi T10 final on December 2. He shared the new ball with Vaibhav Arora, and Priyansh Arya hammered his fourth delivery - which was timed at 149 kilometres per hour - through the covers for four. Nortje ended his first over with a slower ball pitched outside off stump, and Arya pulled it past mid-on for another boundary.

Nortje returned to bowl the ninth, and conceded consecutive fours through point and midwicket to Nehal Wadhera - who thought he could pull the next ball out of the ground but was caught on the square leg boundary. Another four flew off the desperately retreating, furiously swinging Xavier Bartlett's top edge in the 15th.

Nortje's economy rate of 7.66 was bang in the middle of the five bowlers KKR used. He did well enough, but looked like a player finding his way back in the wake of a long layoff.

Perhaps the highlight of his three overs was the last ball of his second over - a 150kph bolt that was pitched short and had a startled Glenn Maxwell bending his back to stay out of its path. The delivery was also too hot for De Kock to handle properly behind the stumps. He dived, but could only parry the ball left-handed to fine leg for a bye.

Another notable Nortje fact from the match was that he became the second player in the game after Sunil Narine whose bat was too fat to pass through the umpires' gauge. The MCC has decreed that no willow may be wielded in a match if it is more than 10.8 centimetres wide, 6.7cm deep and 4cm thick at the edges, but players have got away with bigger bats than that for years.

Not on our watch, the BCCI seem to have said at last. Were they prompted into action by Kagiso Rabada's interview in the March 24 edition of the Indian Express?

"I don't think [pitches] can just get too flat in every single game," Rabada was quoted as saying. "It would take the fun out of it. Then you might as well call our sport batting and not cricket.

"High-scoring games are good but so are low-scoring games. You can't have it tilting either way too dramatically. The most exciting games are the ones that hang in the balance, requiring batters to apply themselves when wickets fall and play really well to win matches for their teams. Or bowlers to step up in the same manner. It shouldn't be about just survival for either."

Rabada played only two games for Gujarat Titans before returning home for as yet undisclosed personal reasons. Doubtless he would have smiled at Nortje carrying an oversized bat to the crease. It shouldn't matter how fat it is - Nortje uses it mostly for blocking.

Still another South Africa fast bowler, Marco Jansen, took 3/17 and had a lot to do with Punjab dismissing KKR for 95 to win despite their measly total of 111 - the lowest defended in IPL history.

De Kock, who has featured in all seven of KKR's games, was caught at deep fine leg off Bartlett having scored two off four. He lashed an unbeaten 97 to seal an eight-wicket win with 15 balls to spare over Rajasthan Royals in Guwahati in KKR's second match, hitting a touch more than 70% of his runs in fours and sixes despite presiding over 19 dots in the 61 balls he faced. But his next best score is the 23 he made against Chennai Super Kings at Chepauk on Friday. He has reached double figures only three times in his seven innings.

Still, it's a treat for cricketminded South Africans to turn on their televisions and see the doe-eyed left-hander at the crease, regardless of the shirt he wears. Likewise, the sight of Nortje and his ridiculous moustache steaming in to bowl will make his compatriots stop what they are doing and watch, if only for that over.

It's what the IPL is to many outside of India: just another stage on which to watch the players they care about, and who cares which team win. Especially if those players are of the lesser-spotted variety.