Head coach Mark Boucher is confident Proteas ODI and T20I captain Quinton de Kock will be able to cope with the additional responsibility.
De Kock succeeded former ODI captain Faf du Plessis on a full-time basis earlier this year. He has also been named captain for this month’s T20I series against England, although the appointment is not permanent. He will likely remain as wicketkeeper and continue opening the batting, too.
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‘A lot of people questioned MS Dhoni when he was captaining India and he had a great captaincy record. Quinton enjoys being in the game. Sometimes he sits in the dressing room during a Test match and he gets really irritated because he wants to be doing something all the time,’ said Boucher.
‘I think he really enjoys it. The off-the-field stuff might get to him a bit. We’re going to have to help him in that regard. But, certainly, on the field he leads well. He made some good captaining decisions and off the field he is pretty chilled. He is unique and that can be good for young players. I do think it can be sustainable.
‘We always knew Quinton had a very smart cricketing brain. He’s had a couple of different field placings which I thought were good – he’s thinking out of the box. He is unique and I think the uniqueness of him can work wonders in a dressing room like this because we’ve got a unique set-up as well. So, I’m happy with the way he has been so far and he will probably grow to be a lot better as well.’
Du Plessis was not in the squad for the recent ODI series against England and has not been included for the T20Is. He will probably return for the T20I series against Australia later this month. Whether Du Plessis or De Kock captains the Proteas during the T20 World Cup in Australia remains in the balance.
‘That was always the plan and Faf is still one of our best T20 players. We feel he needs a bit of a break away from the game. There is going to be a lot of cricket leading up to a T20 World Cup, so we’ll take any opportunity we get to give guys a bit of rest and give other guys opportunities to see what they’re all about,’ added Boucher.
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