Will Quinton de Kock's captaincy reinvigorate the South Africa T20I team?

When the South African management appointed Quinton de Kock as the T20I captain for the 2019 tour of India, they were looking towards the future. After a very disappointing World Cup 2019, it became a necessity for them to make radical decisions to avoid a similar fiasco in the T20I World Cup 2020.

The T20I series against India showed a glimpse of the Proteas side under the 26-year-old's leadership. While they lost one match against India, they bounced back in the very next match by scripting one of the biggest upset victories. Therefore, early signs show that the de Kock-led team has an impressive fightback ability.

Quinton de Kock and former South Africa opener Hashim Amla

The newly-appointed skipper is an established opening batsman and has the experience of opening the innings with trailblazers like Hashim Amla and Rohit Sharma in the Indian Premier League. In the second T20I match as captain against India, de Kock registered his highest T20I individual score of 79. This shows that captaincy may only bring out the best in him.

Considering de Kock’s job description as the specialist opening batsman, captaincy will be an extra boost that drives him to contribute maximum runs to the team and lead from the front. If fellow batsmen aid the left-hander and adapt well to play around him, then the team will be a formidable batting unit.

It will be interesting to see how Quinton de Kock uses the South African bowlers.

A team may be only as good as the captain, but still, the performance of each player is very essential for success. Having played under brilliant leaders like AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis, de Kock’s understanding of the team structure and how the players fit in will be so crucial while making important decisions.

As the recently appointed Proteas skipper is handling the team in its transition phase, there is much work to do. A lot of bold on-field experimentations have to be carried out by him as a captain. How the team fares in the coming days and the upcoming T20I World Cup depends on the effectiveness of his innovative decisions.

The South Africa batsman has been successful in everything he did for his team so far. The southpaw is the joint-quickest batsman to reach 1000 runs in ODI cricket. Behind the stumps, de Kock is the fastest in terms of matches (35) to take 150 Test dismissals. Will he enjoy similar success in captaincy? only time will tell, but de Kock looks promising for sure.

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