WI vs SA | Haven’t changed my mindset on anything irrespective of captaincy, states Quinton de Kock

Last year, post the pandemic, Quinton de Kock assumed the captaincy of the Proteas team across all formats, for a short period of time. While he didn’t have the best of starts to his captaincy tenure, his runs and natural instinct with the bat started to take a hit, which led to him stepping down from the role. 

Under the new leader, Dean Elgar, de Kock has stated that he hasn’t changed his mindset of anything irrespective of not being the skipper of the Proteas side. Walking in at 119/4, de Kock forged multiple partnerships with the rest of the batting unit, to take the visitors to a commanding position of 322, giving South Africa a 225-run first-innings lead. 

“I haven't changed my mindset on anything when I was captain and now. Irrespective captaincy or no captaincy, I was keeping up to date with Dean from the side. Just to make sure I'm upto their standards. Not to an extent - concerned not getting a Test hundred,” he stated in the post-day presentation. 

“We weren't playing a lot of Test matches. I had a lot of fifties I wasn't converting which was irritating. Been doing really well in this Test. Our bowlers came out and were aggressive. Wicket is getting up and down from the looks of it. Lot of movement and swing around. We'll be alright,” he added.

While stating that the knock was ‘quite satisfying’, the wicketkeeper-batsman admitted that the runs were always going to come at some point. He also pointed out that the goal was to get himself into strong positions to counter the moving ball. 

“Quite satisfying. Just wanted to go out there and just bat time. The runs I thought were gonna come at some point. Just to stay out there and get the team into a strong position - very satisfying. Was trying to get myself into strong positions at the start with the ball moving around. Wanted to put the bad balls away. “

The former skipper was seen holding his bat lengthwise, where he showed the name of Rockwood, an organisation fighting to save the endangered rhino with a hand gesture. De Kock expressed that the celebration was for the initiative with the rhino conservation. 

“The initiative with the rhino conservation - it's got to do with them (his celebration). One of my friends got his finger cut off in Afghanistan, I said I'll salute him if I get an accolade."