South Africa’s glowing star, Quinton de Kock is having the time of his life in the IPL this season.
He is scoring at an average of 92 in the three games he has played with the only century of the season so far to his name. He has already scored 184 runs and is looking a very useful player for the Delhi Daredevils this season.
He has been equally impressive on national duty where he has broken the records for reaching batting milestones earlier this year. He is currently one of the best keeper-batsmen in the world and this has seen a lot of pressure on the 23 –year old.
With the amount of runs he has scored, he has inevitably been compared to the Australian great Adam Gilchrist who had a similar start to his career.
However, De Kock felt that he was completely different from the hard hitting Gilchrist and denied any similarity in playing styles between the two players.
“Yeah, I have been hearing about this a lot.
But I don’t think there is any resemblance or similarity. He has a different technique and I do it differently. I have made my own name now,” he said in a recent interview.
The 23-year old who scored a superb unbeaten century to take his team to a victory over the Royal Challengers Bangalore is grounded firmly and feels that his team has not done enough to allow the players to relax.
He explained that his team have got just the two victories and that it is important for the team to accumulate 7 or 8 victories before starting to think about the next round of the competition.
“We still have a long way to go in the season. Although we have been doing well, I don’t think we have still got the momentum,” he added.
The Proteas wicket-keeper who has been a part of the IPL since 2013, playing for the Sunrisers Hyderabad before moving to Delhi, acknowledged that crowd in the country and said that he has loved every moment of his time in the IPL.
“Oh yes, I think I should consider moving on here. I love playing IPL and love the people of India, the culture and the traditions here,” he said.
The 23-year old has always been a nightmare for the Indian bowlers and has scored 4 of his 10 centuries against the Men in Blue.
He revealed that it was because of the pitches in India where the ball comes on to the bat easily.
“Obviously, playing cricket is also special. The pitches are very flat here in the IPL and being an opener, I love the ball coming to bat,” De Kock revealed talking about his form.
He also spoke about his teammates and revealed his chemistry with the squad.
“I am enjoying my stint in the IPL. Apart from the games and on the ground, we spend some good time with each other. Young boys are quite funny in our squad and I find Mayank ( Agarwal) to be the funniest,” he added.
De Kock also took part in a quick rapid fire round before the end of the interview. Here are the questions and the quick replies:
Q Who do you idolize in cricket and outside cricket?
An Outside cricket is Tiger Woods. Kumar Sangakkara, in cricket.
Q Which is the toughest bowler you have faced till now?
A Malinga (Lasith), because of his action.
Q Which is the best thing you like about India?
A Nonvegetarian food is very good in India.
Q Who is your best friend in cricket fraternity?
A Dale Steyn, Chris Morris, Kagiso Rabada
The batsman also spoke about his side’s struggle in the World T20.
He felt that his side performed really well but said that failing to capitalize on the important moments hurt them in the tournament.
“Maybe we struggled in the bowling department. In the key moments, other teams snatched the games from us. But that is how T20 cricket is,” he said.
He also had some praises saved for his national team skipper AB de Villiers.
He said that De Villiers is a batsman that cannot be compared to anyone and that he has learnt a lot from MR.360.
”AB is AB. You cannot compare him with anyone else. The kind of shots he plays surprises us, but it is usual for him. He is very destructive and probably one of the best batsmen in the world at this time,” he said talking about AB de Villiers.