JOHANNESBURG: South African players can look forward to playing “street-smart” cricket when Quinton de Kock takes over as captain next month.

The wicketkeeper-batsman, who has replaced Faf du Plessis as skipper of the 50-over team, said his style of leadership will be just like his unorthodox performances with the bat where tends to mix magical creativity with an occasional lack of discipline.

“You always have plan A and plan B, and if they don’t work, I like to come up with things on the field,” the 27-year-old, who will begin his captaincy with a three-match series against World Cup winners England, told reporters on Wednesday.

“In different situations, you have to make decisions on the go, especially in the heat of everything. What you see out there dictates the way you play the game. I will do a little bit of homework every now and again, but most of the time I will keep it pretty street-smart. Guys can end up learning from the game without planning for things. That helps grow cricketers.”

South Africa also host Australia in three ODIs in February and March before travelling to India. De Kock’s progress as ODI captain will be closely watched as it could set him up as Du Plessis’ successor in the Test arena too.

Du Plessis has hinted he will quit as Test skipper after the mid-year series in West Indies.

“It’s not up to me whether they want me to be test captain or not, it’s entirely up to the coaches and Graeme (Smith) and all those guys,” added De Kock. “I don’t think I will push for it, but if they want me to then I will do it to the best of my ability.”

Smith, acting director of cricket at Cricket South Africa, said of De Kock: “He has a unique outlook and manner in which he goes about his business and is tactically very street smart. We are confident that the new leadership role will bring out the best in him as a cricketer and that he can take the team forward into the future and produce results that South Africans the world over can be very proud of.”

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2020