Taking it step-by-step, not throwing whatever I think on team: De Kock on his captaincy role

Quinton de Kock says he has eased into the South African captaincy in limited-overs formats and feels the Twenty20 side is on the right track for this year’s World Cup in Australia.

De Kock has taken over leading the side from Faf du Plessis in white-ball cricket and had a baptism of fire with three one-day internationals and three Twenty20 matches each against England and Australia in the last few months.

They secured a 3-0 ODI series victory over the touring Australians and De Kock feels there has been progressing.

“I took it pretty slowly, I am still trying to get a feel of how to go about things. I have learned quite a bit and I didn’t do too badly,” he said in audio released by Cricket South Africa on Tuesday.

“It was more about taking it step-by-step, not just throwing out what I think straight away to the team. We are busy rebuilding as a limited-overs team, especially ODIs. Twenty20 I think we know what is going on.

“The series against Australia ... we had quite a young team and they had a powerhouse side, so for us to beat them 3-0 was a highlight.”

De Kock has emerged as South Africa’s most accomplished batsman in all forms of the game in the past two seasons and they have become heavily reliant on his runs.

He admits, however, that his goal is to convert more good starts into hundreds.

“I played decently, there was a time when I was starting to get grumpy at not converting my starts into big scores, especially in the test series against England,” De Kock said.