Proteas wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock on Thursday (September 5) told his teammates to not lose sleep over an expected spin threat and rather be prepared for the worst during their forthcoming India tour.

South Africa’s tour of India will kick-start on September 15 with a three-match T20I series, while the highly-anticipated Test series will commence from October 2.

“From our side‚ what we are going to do is to make sure that we prepare for the worst,” De Kock, who will be leading the T20 side in the absence of Faf du Plessis, quoted as saying by PTI.

“To be honest‚ I don’t know what we are going to get. In T20s I don’t think it will spin that much because in the IPL they prepare pretty good wickets.

“But Test matches are a different story and it could end up turning on day one. It is more of a mental thing and not being caught up too much on whether it is spinning or not‚ that is what it boils down to,” he added.

When South Africa toured India last time in 2015, questions were raised over the quality of surfaces in the Test series. The Tests at Mohali and Nagpur didn’t last five days with the visiting batsmen getting bamboozled by Indian spinners. In fact, the Nagpur pitch had received ‘poor’ rating from the ICC.

“The last time we were there‚ guys didn’t really expect those type of surfaces but this time around we will have a little bit of head start about that‚” De Kock said.

“We will keep our eyes open and make sure that we are a little bit better than last time. I am not sure if they are going to prepare similar or better wickets than the last time we were there.”

(With PTI inputs)