Ready to take up captaincy if need arises, asserts Quinton de Kock
South African wiekct-keeper batsman Quinton de Kock has said that he is ready to take the reigns of captaincy of the South African T20 team permanently if required. De Kock captained the Proteas in absense of Faf du Plessis against India and showed impressive skills in his team's 1-1 series result.
Quinton de Kock had shown traits of a good captain in the recently concluded T20I series against India, after taking up the role in the absence of Faf du Plessis. After the first T20I got washed out and the second was won by India, in the third T20I, de Kock was impressive in his field settings and bowling changes that helped restrict India to a meagre 135 after which he played a captain's knock remaining unbeaten with a half-century as they beat India by nine wickets comprehensively.
Despite him being nothing more than a stand-in captain as of now, de Kock has revealed that he is ready to take up the role full-time should the need arise.
"The way I see it is that I was just a replacement. That's the way I took it. For now, it’s still Faf's baby. But maybe if things change and they do want me to do it, then I will do it,” De Kock told ESPNcricinfo.
"For the moment, I am not looking too far ahead. I am just trying to look at how I can help out with the youngsters, with the new guys in the T20 team and by myself, just getting better and getting ready for the T20 World Cup next year. But if that does come upon me, then I will try and grab it with both hands," he added.
Despite the South African side struggling of late, de Kock believes that this is a transition phase that takes place in every team in the world and feels that with talents like Rassie van der Dussen coming through, the Proteas will reach the heights once they touched, pretty soon in the future.
Sticking to the topic of transition, De Kock went on to cite the example of a dismal England team that was knocked out of the 2015 World Cup by Bangladesh but then bounced back to win the 2019 edition. The wicket-keeper batsman also believes that the players have enough inspiration and hunger to constantly push the bar high and produce match-winning performances for the team.
"We are not the first team that has gone through a transition. England did it after their last World Cup and look at them. Four years later, they end up winning the thing," said de Kock.
"It's alright if the whole country and guys are a bit down and out but when we all gather together, especially after winning this Rugby World Cup, a lot of people are pumped up and want to get this transition going so the time we get to our next World Cup, we can really put ourselves in a good stead, just like England did," he concluded.
