Quinton de Kock played a solid knock of 81 in the first ODI at Johannesburg.
Faf du Plessis believes that wicketkeeper batsman Quinton de Kock will have a major role to play for South Africa during this year's ICC Cricket World Cup in England and Wales.
"There is still a long time to go before the tournament but the currency is runs and hopefully he [De Kock] will have a good IPL and transform that to the World Cup‚ because he is one of our most dangerous players," Du Plessis was quoted saying by Business Day.
"If you have three of the most senior men in the team firing‚ you will have a chance of having a good tournament and if that doesn’t happen you are going to have an average tournament."
Both Faf, who scored a top hundred in the first ODI at Jo'burg, and De Kock (81) were part of an outstanding third-wicket stand that helped Proteas chase down Sri Lanka's modest 232-run target with still eight wickets and 73 balls to spare. The South African captain made 112 off 114 balls to register his 15th ODI century and was later awarded "Player-of-the-Match" for his efforts as well.
"The last two years have been really good to me in white-ball cricket because there has been consistency in my game," the skipper added. "I have been performing different roles of batting at three and at four to challenge myself more to see what suits the team best and we will keep exploring with that a bit. What Rassie [van der Dussen] brings to the team is like myself because he can shift through gears and bat at different positions."
"It is nice to have guys like that in our batting line-up who can bat in different roles. I have been batting at No3 for the past 10 to 15 games and I wanted to have a crack at No3 for this series and see what happens. We will make a call after this series about who are the five or six batsmen for the World Cup."
"It is going to be difficult to stop the noise in the build-up to the World Cup. The noise will be turned up a bit when we get closer but we are trying to get our processes every time we play. We focus on stuff that we have been practising. Rassie played very well under pressure and he was composed and that’s what we try to do. At the World Cup‚ it is going to be how you play every moment."
The second ODI begins on Wednesday, March 6 in Centurion.