South Africa wicketkeeper batter Quinton de Kock has announced retirement from Test Cricket with immediate effect. The 29-year old was supposed to miss the rest of the series against India on paternity leave but he decided to give up the longest format entirely.
The announcement came after South Africa’s 113 run-loss against India in the Centurion Test as the visitors took a 1-0 lead in the 3-match series.
However, he said that he would be fully committed to playing white-ball cricket for South Africa but citing his intentions to spend some time with his family he had to give up the longest format.
“This is not a decision that I have come to very easily. I have taken a lot of time to think about what my future looks like and what needs to take priority in my life now that Sasha and I are about to welcome our first child into this world and look to grow our family beyond that. My family is everything to me and I want to have the time and space to be able to be with them during this new and exciting chapter of our lives.” Quinton de Kock said in a press release.
In his 54-Test career, de Kock scored 3300 runs with an average of 38.82which included 6 hundreds and he also effected 232 dismissals (221 catches and 11 stumpings) behind the wicket.
“I love Test cricket and I love representing my country and all that it comes with. I’ve enjoyed the ups and the downs, the celebrations and even the disappointments, but now I’ve found something that I love even more,” he added.
“In life, you can buy almost everything except for time, and right now, it’s time to do right by the people that mean the most to me. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been a part of my Test cricket journey from the very beginning. To my coaches, teammates, the various management teams and my family and friends – I couldn’t have shown up as I did without your support.” he concluded.
He made his test debut against Australia at Port Elizabeth in 2014. In his test career, he played some game-changing knocks down the track. His strike rate of 70.93 tells a story in itself. As a wicketkeeper, his dismissals per innings ratio (2.36) is the best for any wicketkeeper who played more than 5 Test matches.
“This is not the end of my career as a Protea, I’m fully committed to white-ball cricket and representing my country to the best of my ability for the foreseeable future,” he assured.
Quinton de Kock’s next assignment will be the ODI series against India which will start on January 19 at Paarl.
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