South Africa wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock, who is playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the ongoing Indian Premier League, has hailed Virat Kohli for his unparalleled desire to be the best in the business.
“Virat is very competitive by nature. As I said, he just wants to be the best. That sort of attitude is something that can only bring out the best in him,” De Kock quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.
“He’s not quite (emotional) actually. When you play against him, he seems very emotional. But now that when you play with him, it’s just Virat being Virat. He’s very passionate about what he does. Even when he plays soccer, if he doesn’t win, doesn’t do well, that’s just him being him,” he added.
De Kock was in Mumbai to inaugurate Spintechs, a special mat that helps batsmen to tackle the spin and pace of a certain delivery. The 25-year-old admitted that he is not quite as effective against spin bowling as he is against the pacers before adding that the Proteas batsmen had found it difficult to cope up against Kuldeep Yadav, when India toured the rainbow nation earlier this year.
“When they came to South Africa, they were very much unknown, and I think that’s what really we struggled at. We were struggling to pick Kuldeep. He was bowling so slowly to us; we just didn’t know what to do with it. From the sidelines, however, you think ‘Ah! How well these young Indian spinners are bowling.’ Hopefully next time we’ll be able to play them better,” de Kock remarked.
In the last one year or so, South Africa have lost quite a few cricketers to Kolpak deal for English county teams. Recently, the towering Proteas speedster Morne Morkel took premature retirement from international cricket and opted to play for Surrey.
Sharing his views on the matter, the South Africa glovesman said: “It’s always a personal decision for the player why they want to sign Kolpak deals. It’s not always possible to know why they’ve done it. There’s just too much talent back home I guess. That could be it.”
“They might feel they can’t really make it back home. But if that’s going to make them better people, better cricketers, that’s good. If they want to come back they’ll be welcomed with open arms. It’s always good to have guys with experience coming back,” he concluded.
