South Africa are not worried about Quinton de Kock’s poor batting form at the World Cup ahead of Saturday’s showdown with Pakistan in Auckland.

De Kock is the only batsman in the current top six who hasn’t managed to score either a fifty or a hundred; his highest score since the tournament started being the 12 he got against the West Indies. Scores of 7, 7 and 1 round out his performances in the pool stage thus far.

However, Hashim Amla, De Kock’s fellow opener, isn’t too concerned about the wicketkeeper’s lack of runs.

‘His dry spell will be short lived,’ said Amla.

‘Quinny is unbelievably talented and a hard working player. He works hard in the nets and nobody really notices that. Everybody, even myself and AB [De Villiers] go through a few games where you don’t get runs.’

De Kock injured his ankle during South Africa’s home test series against the West Indies late last year, and missed the subsequent ODI series against the same opposition.

The joint fastest player to 1 000 ODI runs has struggled for form since he returned and the question is now being asked whether or not the team will be better off dropping him in favour of Rilee Rossouw, who has scored two fifties in South Africa’s last two matches.

The alternative would be to move De Kock down the order and let Rossouw open the innings with Amla, but there is no guarantee that this will help him get back into form.

Amla, however, believes there is a silver lining to the situation.

‘It’s not all bad, because you know he is due some runs. Everything has a benefit to it,’ said Amla.

‘On a personal level, he will appreciate it even more once he does get some runs. The fact that he is not getting runs and we are managing to get good totals on the board, I think that is a nice situation to be in.

‘We all believe he will come good.’