De Kock growing into South Africa captaincy

• Wicketkeeper-batsman has taken over leading the side from Faf du Plessis in white-ball cricket.

Quinton de Kock says he has eased into the South African captaincy in limited-overs formats and feels the Twenty20 International (T20I) side is on the right track for this year’s World Cup in Australia.

De Kock has taken over leading the side from Faf du Plessis in white-ball cricket, and had a baptism of fire with three one-day internationals (ODIs) and three Twenty20 matches each against England and Australia in the last few months.

They secured a 3-0 ODI series victory over the touring Australians and De Kock feels there has been progress.

“I took it pretty slowly, I am still trying to get a feel of how to go about things. I have learnt quite a bit and I didn’t do too badly,” he said in audio released by Cricket South Africa on Tuesday. “It was more about taking it step-by-step, not just throwing out what I think straight away to the team. We are busy rebuilding as a limited overs team, especially ODIs. Twenty20 I think we know what is going on. The series against Australia ... we had quite a young team and they had a powerhouse side, so for us to beat them 3-0 was a highlight.”

De Kock has emerged as South Africa’s most accomplished batsman in all forms of the game in the past two seasons and they have become heavily reliant on his runs.

He admits, however, that his goal is to convert more good starts into hundreds.

“I played decently, there was a time when I was starting to get grumpy at not converting my starts into big scores, especially in the test series against England,” he said. “I want to get better, to start scoring big hundreds for the team, that is the most important thing to get going now.”

South Africa are scheduled to tour the West Indies for two Test matches and five Twenty20 internationals in late July and August, but that, and the World Cup in October, is subject to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I’m not sure what will happen, every country has their regulations they must adhere to. It is just a matter of waiting for this to go past and then we can get on with the game again,” De Kock concluded.