QDK retirement: Was Quinton de Kock South Africa’s best Test wicket-keeper batter?

QDK retirement: The South African wicket-keeper batter astonishingly called time upon his Test career a few hours ago.

South Africa’s Quinton de Kock surprised one and all by retiring from Test cricket a few hours after the culmination of first South Africa vs India Test match in Centurion. de Kock, 29, was slated for a paternity leave to miss the remaining two Tests for he and wife Sasha de Kock are expecting their first child in the next few days.

Stating that “family is everything” to him, de Kock opted for “not an easy” decision in order to “have the time and space to be able to be with them”.

“I love Test cricket and I love representing my country and all that it comes with,” de Kock said in an official statement issued by Cricket South Africa.

“I’ve enjoyed the ups and the downs, the celebrations and even the disappointments, but now I’ve found something that I love even more. In life, you can buy almost everything except for time, and right now, it’s time to do right by the people that mean the most to me.”

QDK retirement

After making his white-ball debuts in the previous two years, de Kock was handed with a maiden Test cap in February 2014. In 54 Tests, de Kock had scored 3,300 runs at an average and strike rate of 38.82 and 70.93 respectively. For a batter who batted at No. 6 and 7 in 68 out of 91 Test innings, scoring six centuries and 22 half-centuries is no mean feat.

Before de Kock, only former England wicket-keeper batter Alan Knott, former India captain Kapil Dev and former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum had five Test centuries at No. 7 to their name. Former Australia wicket-keeper batter Adam Gilchrist (12) is the only player with more Test centuries at No. 7.

Since his debut, de Kock is the 20th highest run-scorer in Test cricket. However, his real impact can be judged from the fact that no other wicket-keeper batter has scored more runs than him in this period.

Was Quinton de Kock South Africa’s best Test wicket-keeper batter?

de Kock finishes cricket’s ancestral format as South Africa’s 15th highest Test run-scorer. As far as wicket-keeping is concerned, de Kock (232 dismissals) is way behind former South Africa wicket-keeper and current head coach Mark Boucher (553 dismissals). Overall, de Kock’s 221 catches and 11 stumping dismissals put him in the 12th position in the list of most dismissals as a wicket-keeper in Test cricket.

Had de Kock continued in the same way for a few more years, he would’ve surely surpassed what Boucher (5,515 runs at 30.30) had achieved with the bat. Having said that, matching Boucher’s wicket-keeping dismissals would’ve been some task. de Kock, who played almost one-third of Boucher’s (147) Tests, appeared to be a much better batter but the same can’t be said of the job behind the wickets.

MSD Test retirement

In a strange co-incidence, de Kock has joined former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (also the captain then) as a wicket-keeper batter to retire midway through a Test series on December 30.

Dhoni, who had retired from Test cricket seven years ago, had scored 4,876 runs in 90 Tests at an average and strike rate of 38.09 and 59.11 respectively. In his first 54 Tests, Dhoni had scored 2,925 runs at an average of 40.06 including four centuries and 20 half-centuries.