De Kock said he will hit the nets only when “serious cricket” resumes.
South Africa’s limited-overs cricket skipper Quinton De Kock has revealed that he does not want to be overburdened with Test captaincy and that’s the reason he decided to not continue as a leader in the five-day format of the game.
The wicketkeeper-batsman further pointed out that Test captaincy brings a lot of pressure and stress and that’s “just too much to handle” for him and he doesn’t want to take all that stress so felt better to stay as white-ball captain and continue focus on doing well in the red-ball game.
De Kock, who was named Test captain earlier this year, revealed that he had a discussion regarding the Test captaincy with the Proteas coach Mark Boucher.
The left-hander, who has so far played 47 Tests and scored 2934 runs with the help of 5 centuries and 21 fifties, recently became only the sixth South Africa to be honored with “Cricketer of the Year” twice after being awarded the same at the 2020 Cricket South Africa (CSA) award ceremony held virtually on Saturday (July 4). The 27-year-old has also bagged the “Test Cricketer of the Year” award.
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De Kock was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo: “Me and Bouch (Boucher) had a very informal chat and I told him, look, I don't know how I feel about being a Test captain also. The reality is that's just too much for me to handle. I know that and I realize that. I don't need all that stress on myself.”
He further added, “I could see from a mile away that I didn't need that on top of my shoulders. I'm wanting to come up the order in Test cricket and so I don't need all that extra pressure.”
The star batsman had been named in the 45-man high-performance squad, who were asked to return to training at their franchise grounds last week but he didn’t return to training saying he will hit the nets only when “serious cricket” resumes despite being out of action since last three months.
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De Kock further added, “I haven’t done anything. Obviously, I’ve kept up with fitness. I’ve done my training in the gym but I haven’t hit a ball yet. There’s still so much time until the next serious cricket game is going to happen. So, to go back to serious training, I don’t know when it needs to happen. I mean, you can go back to hitting balls, for now. But we could actually be hitting balls for no reason. That’s where I feel I’m at.”
He is due to captain The Kites in the ‘3TCricket’ competition starting on July 18, which would mark the resumption of live cricket in South Africa following the coronavirus-forced break, and the captain said needed “little bit of lockdown” to do his “own thing”.
The Proteas captain further explained, “Because of the regulations, it’s hard to have such a big squad in a certain environment. I’m based in a very remote place. There’s not much cricket around where I live. I’ve made sure my fitness is up to date. Practice almost becomes muscle memory. For me, at this point in my career, a break is more important than training.”
De Kock signed off by saying, “I’m sure other guys have trained, but I kind of needed a little bit of lockdown. I needed a break to spend time with myself, my family, friends. You know, do my own thing. But as soon as we get the full go-ahead, when serious cricket is going to happen, then I’ll get back into it. I’m not too sure when it’s going to happen, but as soon as we get the go-ahead then I’ll get back into it.”
(With ESPNcricinfo Inputs)