Quinton de Kock has revealed that he would like to bat higher for the Proteas.
The 24-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman has been batting considerably lower than he does for the ODI side, where he has prospered.
The idea whether De Kock could replicate his form in limited-overs higher up the order in the Test arena is a risk which many believe should be taken.
With the Proteas suffering a massive loss due to poor batting in the first Test, it seems as though De Kock’s talents have been wasted down the order.
Speaking to the cricketer, De Kock voiced his thoughts about his position in the batting lineup.
‘Obviously, I would like to bat a little bit higher, but I look at the team first. I’ve never really batted higher in Test cricket.
‘In four-day cricket, I have opened the batting, but I didn’t keep, now I am keeping, it doesn’t help. I could end up keeping for 180 overs then have to go and open.
‘I still end up scoring runs on top of it – I’m going to be one of the fitter guys in the cricketing world, if not the fittest guy in cricket.
‘It’s a large workload on me, we’ll have to see how things go.’
He went on to admit that the 211-run defeat at Lord’s was a difficult pill to swallow, but that he doesn’t feel that the winning margin showed a true reflection of the quality of both sides.
‘It was disappointing, but going through those four days we thought we were close to England’s breaking point,’ he said.
‘We just needed to change the momentum, because of Rooty [Joe Root] they got to that score and one or two key guys in the team chipped in.
‘If we took our early chances we could have bowled them out for 250 and it could have been a game-changer, that’s just how cricket is.
‘Through the whole four days, we thought we had a chance.
‘We were confident going into the final innings, we thought we had a chance of chasing it down because we had so much time to bat.
‘Unfortunately, our collapse on the last day wasn’t the best way to go down. The guys were sore, we were hurt.’
De Kock commented on playing the second Test at Trent Bridge without Kagiso Rabada, who is seeing out a match ban after receiving his fourth demerit for swearing after the dismissal of Ben Stokes.
‘Obviously to lose a guy like KG is not the best thing to happen, he is one of the best bowlers in the world, especially in Test cricket,’ he continued.
‘He was doing what he could to win us the game at Lord’s, but he has been banned for one game. It’s unfortunate, but you can’t blame the players in the heat of the moment, it happens.
‘We can be sure when he comes back he will be fit and firing to take on those last two games. He will make our team stronger.
‘But saying that, Duanne, Chris, Andile, those three have been training up until this point, waiting for their opportunity, I’m sure they will take that with both hands.’
He ended by commenting on the return of Test captain Faf du Plessis.
‘Faf adds a lot of value to our team, he is our captain, brings leadership back and adds to the batting team as well, he is someone you need on your team.’
