Why is Quinton de Kock not playing today’s 2021 T20 World Cup match between South Africa and West Indies in Dubai?

Quinton de Kock not playing: South Africa have made a massive change to their Playing XI in their second T20 World Cup match.

During the 18th match of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2021 between South Africa and West Indies in Dubai, South Africa captain Temba Bavuma has won the toss and chose to field.

“We are going to have a bowl. I think just having a look at the wicket, it has been challenging for us to know what a good score is, so we want to have a look. We take out a lot, all the positives and all the negatives. We know what a power-packed side they are, looking at our performances we know where we can cool them down,” Bavuma said at the toss.

West Indies captain Kieron Pollard was unsure about making a decision at the toss. An experienced T20 campaigner, Pollard was unperturbed about their shambolic defeat against England on Saturday.

I always say toss is 50-50. It is an opportunity for us to bat first, put things right and we look forward to the challenge. Like I said we play a lot of cricket and something that we all have experienced at some point in time, we all deal with challenges in different ways, it is matter of us understanding on what we did wrong and how to fix it. The guys have been upbeat despite what happened a couple of days ago.

Why is Quinton de Kock not playing vs South Africa?

While both teams have made a change each to their Playing XI for this match, South Africa not taking the field without wicket-keeper batter Quinton de Kock is a significant decision.

“Quinny [Quinton de Kock] is out and Reeza [Hendricks] is in. He [de Kock] has made himself unavailable for personal reasons,” Bavuma said. Having scored 302 runs in six innings at an average and strike rate of 50.33 and 133.63 respectively, de Kock is South Africa’s highest run-scorer against West Indies in the shortest format.

Just switched on 📺 and seen quinny made himself unavailable🤨

— Herschelle Gibbs (@hershybru) October 26, 2021

As far as Hendricks is concerned, his 132 runs in six innings against West Indies have come at an average and strike rate of 22 and 132 respectively. Heinrich Klaasen, who has kept wickets in 28 out of his 53 matches across formats for South Africa, will replace de Kock behind the wickets.

West Indies, on the other hand, have made a change in the bowling department bringing in spinner Hayden Walsh Jr for fast bowler Obed McCoy. “[Obed] McCoy misses out and Hayden Walsh [Jr] gets an opportunity. He did well in the recent bilateral series and we look forward to his leg-spin, the art and energy that he brings,” Pollard further said.

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

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