Quinton de Kock refrained from entertaining the idea of batting up the order for the Proteas, his focus is fully on his current role in the side, writes Khalid Mohidin.
There has been chatter from fans, pundits and media alike about the idea of moving Quinton de Kock up the order.
When you look around at the top teams in the world, their top batsman occupy the No 3 or 4 position.
De Kock has been labeled as the Proteas’ best batsman by many and stats over the last two years back up that up.
The wicketkeeper batsman sits proudly at the top of the pile as South Africa’s highest scorer with 1105 runs in 18 games, an average of 33.48 with two 100s and seven 50s.
South Africa, since the retirement of AB de Villiers, Jacques Kallis and recently Hashim Amla, have opted for Zubayr Hamza and Rassie van der Dussen in those two spots.
“I think I’ve batted for every place in this team any way,” said Quinton de Kock jokingly, when asked about batting higher up the order.
“At the moment you got Aiden, well he’s injured now. We have Dean, Faf, Rassie, it’s looking pretty solid there at the moment.
“I don’t think there’s any reason for me to change from where I am, well I don’t see a reason. But if they want me to I would do it it’s not a problem.
“I think you should give guys like Rassie more of a chance before you say where I must bat or not. We will see from there.
De Kock batted at No 6 for the Proteas in the first Test at Centurion.
He managed to score 95 but unfortunately fell short of his century, but despite that his contribution was key to the Proteas winning the first Test at centurion convincingly.
We all can agree that his ability and quality is World Class.
He has 2683 runs to his name, has an overall career average of 38.88, scored 18 half-century and five centuries.
A man of his quality and talent deserves more of those half-centuries to be converted into bigger scores, and sometimes batting lower down can get in the way of that.
“From that point of view you obviously would like to bat a little higher because you have more chance to score more runs and bigger runs,” said De Kock.
“I’d like to convert my scores into bigger hundreds. It’s obviously a bit of a problem to bat 7 because you run out of partners.
“Then eventually you try to get the game going and you end up chucking your wicket away trying to score quick runs.
“But I think we have a nice batting unit at the moment so I don’t see that as being a problem so ya, I don’t think there is any reason for me to bat any lower than I am at the moment.”
The Proteas take on England in the second Test at Newlands with Day 1 starting on Friday.
Check out his full interview below.
