Batting: Left hand batsman
Bowling: Right hand medium
Stiaan van Zyl showed glimpses of his left-handed batting talent at school for Boland Agricultural and the Boland Under19-team.
He made his first-class debut at age 19 in 2006/2007.
One season later, he debuted for the Cape Cobras and finished second from the summit of the Cobras batting average with 554 runs.
By 2009/2010, he had attracted national attention as he finished sixth on the domestic batting average and toured Bangladesh and Sri Lanka with the South Africa A side.
The past two seasons have seen Van Zyl blossom even more at domestic level, while he has also evolved into a useful player at Momentum One-Day Cup level.
He averaged 61.18 in the 2012/2013-season in which the Cobras won the Sunfoil Series handsomely.
Van Zyl finished at the top of the averages in the Momentum One-Cay Cup competition for the Cobras, scoring his 343 runs at an average of 42.87.
The solid left-hander was the leading run-scorer in the Sunfoil Series in the 2013-2014-season as he struck 933 runs.
Subsequently, he was included in the South African test squad for the tour to Sri Lanka. He was the reserve batsman again in the one-off test against Zimbabwe.
Van Zyl was included in the South African squad of fourteen for the first test against the West Indies at SuperSport Park in Centurion in December 2014.
A feature of his play is his simple, but technically correct technique. He has a sound temperament and is blessed with time to play stylish attacking shots all around the wicket.
