You just want Quinton de Kock to fly. You never want to clip his wings: Aiden Markram | Cricket-world-cup News

To say that swashbuckling South African opener Quinton de Kock is flying would be an understatement. He has scored a mammoth 407 runs, which includes three centuries in the five matches he has played in this World Cup so far.
Announcing that he’s retiring from ODIs after this World Cup may be giving him the freedom to go out in the middle and play his natural game, but South Africa stand-in skipper Aiden Markram says there’s more to Quinton than just being a free-spirited player.
“We all know Quinton to be the free-spirited guy that he is, but he actually has a fantastic cricket brain. He assesses conditions really well and communicates that to us off the field even before we’ve walked out to bat. It adds a lot of value in that regard,” Markram said after South Africa tore apart Bangladesh 149 runs at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday with Quinton scoring the event’s highest score of 174.
Mumbai: South Africa’s Aiden Markram celebrates his half century with Quinton De Kock during the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 match between Bangladesh and South Africa, in Mumbai, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023. (PTI Photo/Shashank Parade
With a player of Quinton’s talismanic character, the last thing you would want to do is give him a blueprint of how to go about his innings. Markram said that’s not the case for sure.
“You never want to clip his wings really. You just want to let him fly. He structures it (his innings) the exact way he feels he needs to, and we back that completely as a unit,” he said.
South Africa faces a tough test after this, having to face Pakan, New Zealand, and then hosts and favorites India in their next three games. And they would want to bank on Quinton and his batting prowess he has shown.Most Read
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South Africa batting coach and former batsman JP Duminy said on Tuesday that Quinton has the hunger to score big for the team.
“I think it is just a hunger that he has shown. Obviously announcing that he’ll be retiring after the World Cup, the hunger and desire that he has to really put in strong performances for the team,” Duminy said.
“It is easy to score 100 and then sort of take a backseat but every single day that he comes to training, and the games that he has played so far, scoring three hundreds in five innings is a pretty special effort, and knowing the character that he is, he certainly is not going to rest on that. He has great ambitions to go all the way and be a real star performer for his team,” he added.”