De Kock given South Africa ODI captaincy

JOHANNESBURG: Quinton de Kock was on Tuesday named as South Africa’s One-Day International captain as part of a long term transition plan.

His first assignment will be to lead the team in a three-match series against World Cup champions England, starting in Cape Town on February 4. Test and Twenty20 captain Faf du Plessis was not in a 15-man squad named by Cricket South Africa on Tuesday despite committing himself to the organisation until the World Cup T20 in October and November. Independent selector Linda Zondi said Du Plessis’ omission did not signal the end of his ODI career.

“We decided to rest Faf and Kagiso Rabada for this series because they have both played a lot of cricket,” said Zondi. “A different squad will be picked for a T20 series against England after the One-Day games and after that there are still T20s and ODIs against Australia.”

Zondi said the appointment of De Kock was part of succession planning leading up to the 2023 Cricket World Cup. In his press conference after the third Test against England on Monday, Du Plessis said there was an opportunity to relieve some of the pressure on his captaincy.

De Kock, 27, has previously captained South Africa in two one-day internationals and two T20 internationals. Graeme Smith, CSA acting director of cricket, said De Kock was one of the best wicketkeeper-batsmen in the world. “He has a unique outlook and manner in which he goes about his business and is tactically very street smart,” said Smith.