Quinton de Kock said he is still fully coming to terms with his new, extended role for South Africa. The talented wicketkeeper batsman just recently took over the leadership reigns in white-ball cricket and started off on a wonderful note during the home summer.
Proteas fought hard in both ODIs and T20Is versus England before whitewashing Australia 3-0 in the 50-over version. De Kock's men were due to face their biggest challenge yet with the ODI series in India, but those three fixtures got indefinitely postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I took it pretty slowly, I am still trying to get a feel of how to go about things," he said in an audio released by Cricket South Africa this Tuesday (April 28). "I have learnt quite a bit and I didn't do too badly."
"It was more about taking it step-by-step, not just throwing out what I think straight away to the team. We are busy rebuilding as a limited overs team, especially ODIs. Twenty20 I think we know what is going on."
"The series against Australia ... we had quite a young team and they had a powerhouse side, so for us to beat them 3-0 was a highlight," added the 27-year-old.
De Kock, being one of the most experienced members of his young team, also wants to contribute more with the willow and lead from the front.
"I played decently, there was a time when I was starting to get grumpy at not converting my starts into big scores, especially in the test series against England," he said.
"I want to get better, to start scoring big hundreds for the team, that is the most important thing to get going now."
After the India series, South African players were due to join their respective IPL franchises and then the focus would've shifted to the West Indies tour in July-August before the T20 World Cup in Australia in October.
However, there is a genuine threat of uncertainty looming large over all those fixtures because of the deadly outbreak.
"I’m not sure what will happen, every country has their regulations they must adhere to. It is just a matter of waiting for this to go past and then we can get on with the game again," De Kock said.
(Inputs from Reuters)
