Captaincy has come calling for Quinton de Kock at a time his T20I numbers are perhaps at its lowest. That it has come in India, a country where South Africans generally struggle, makes de Kock’s task an arduous one.
The opening batsman is perhaps the most carefree South African batsman and if he wants to adapt to captaincy the first step would be to lead by example. But that’s not possible if he is too worried about the new responsibility. Thankfully for South Africa, he isn’t overly concerned and just sees this as a “stepping stone”.
“I’m not too concerned (captaincy). It’s just a new stepping stone in my career,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “Just gives me a bit of extra responsibility in the team. We’ll see how it goes – it can affect me negatively or positively – I’m not sure at the moment. Hopefully, it gives me the positive energy and I give the best I can do.”
With the first game washed out, de Kock has had time to adapt to his new role. But the real test begins on the pitch at Mohali, a surface where South Africa are likely to be more at home than the other venues in India.
He had first skippered the side last year when Faf du Plessis was injured during an ODI against Sri Lanka. Now as he walks out with this Proteas team, there is no du Plessis. There is no Hashim Amla and there is no AB de Villiers. The presence of three extraordinary batsman in the middle-order had allowed De Kock the batsman to go about with his task seamlessly in the past. Now that they aren’t there, will his approach undergo a makeover?
“I think they (de Villiers, Amla and du Plessis) gave me lots of room to play the way I want. I don’t see it why that would change without them here or not. Even they in their careers went through the same things that we’re going through right now. So, we will take it as it comes.”
“In the leadership group within the team we have discussions, we’ve had a chat about how we’re going to go about things. So far it is under control but we are also still learning. We are still quite a young leadership team. Hopefully, when our careers finish, we will be… and the youngsters coming through would learn from our mistakes.”