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Quinton de Kock (Gallo Images) |
Earlier this year Quinton de Kock was handed the responsibility of captaining the Proteas’ ODI and T20 sides on a permanent basis.
The 27-year-old’s first assignment was to lead a new-look South African side against reigning Cricket World Cup champions England.
Coming off a 3-1 Test series defeat (under Faf de Plessis’ leadership), the Proteas shared the ODI series against their English visitors (1-1), but went down 2-1 in the T20 series that followed.
“We played pretty well to be honest, obviously the Tests were pretty disappointing,” said De Kock.
“It’s always difficult to beat a team like England now, they’re on top of the world at the moment. We didn’t play bad cricket at all. It was just disappointing that we didn’t get enough wins like we wanted to.
“The highlight for me was probably the series win against Australia, we had a young team and they have a powerhouse side.”
The Proteas lost the T20 series against Australia 2-1, but rebounded to whitewash their foes from Down Under 3-0 in the ODI that concluded a busy early part to 2020.
De Kock learnt very quickly the added responsibility and pressure the captaincy role holds and stated that he is still learning on the job.
“I think I took it pretty slowly, I’m still trying to get a feel of how to go about things,” he said.
“Obviously, I’ve learnt quite a bit and I don’t think I’ve done too badly… It was more about taking it step by step, we are rebuilding as a ODI team, I think T20s we know what’s going on. I did okay.”
READ | With Quinny out the running, who captains Proteas Test side?
Earlier this month, new CSA Director of Cricket Graeme Smith confirmed that De Kock will not take over as Test captain after Faf du Plessis stepped down.
The Proteas’ next assignment – a tour to Sri Lanka which was scheduled for June – was cancelled due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
The Proteas’ Test and T20 tour of the West Indies in July and August remains in the balance.
Sport24 reported over the weekend that CSA has secured a lucrative incoming T20 tour from India that is due to take place at the end of August.
– Compiled by Sport24 staff
