Prodigal son Quinton de Kock on how his break rekindled the passion to return to the Proteas

JUST on 14 months ago Rob Walter was stumped.

The former Proteas white-ball coach was left exasperated after facing yet another question on Quinton de Kock’s international future.

"I don't know, to be dead honest. For the next little while, there will be no conversations between myself and Quinny as to whether he wants to play for South Africa again," Walter said. 

"I've left the door open for him to approach me if and when he wants to do that. That might never happen."

At that stage, De Kock had officially retired from ODI’s but was in limbo about his future availability in the T20 format for the national team. De Kock never contacted Walter, who has since left the Proteas to continue his coaching journey with New Zealand’s Black Caps, but did eventually call Walter’s successor Shukri Conrad.

For someone that plays his cricket based on instinct and had previously shocked everyone with his career-decisions, De Kock was showing a new-found maturity as it came after much deliberation.

“The thought process wasn't an overnight thing. It took me weeks, months to really think if I wanted to make a comeback. It was months and months of delegation and thinking, asking myself questions, speaking to people,” De Kock said, after his comeback ODI series in Pakistan.

"Even when I was in India for the IPL (from March to June this year), I didn't think I was ever going to ... guys were asking me if I wanted to come back.

"At that moment, it was a straight no. Then, I don't know (when) exactly, but it just started happening. That thought process about coming back started.

"That hunger was coming back. I felt like if I was going to come back, it should be soon – to pull the trigger and ask the coach or tell the coach I'm available if he wants me back or not."

Once the call was made, and the conditions laid down that it came with “no strings attached”, Conrad and convenor of selectors Patrick Moroney, who has walked a long road with De Kock since his school days at King Edward High School, had no hesitation in recalling the 32-year-old to the Proteas fold.

A low-key comeback followed in a once-off T20I against Namibia in Windhoek before a couple of cameos in the Pakistan T20I series followed with De Kock easing himself back into the international arena.

But despite his last ODI being the 2023 World Cup semi-final defeat to Australia at Eden Gardens two years ago, De Kock did not miss a beat upon his return to his favoured format.

The left-hander opener simply picked up where he left off with two half-centuries and a 22nd ODI century to finish the three-match series with 239 runs - enough to earn him the Player of the Series award upon his comeback. 

He also passed 7 000 ODI runs, joining Indian legend MS Dhoni’s record as the only wicket-keeper/batters to achieve the milestone.

“I've come back, and I've found an energy that I think I lost playing so much international cricket all the time – I played for close to 12 years," de Kock said. 

"I was just lucky enough that I retired early enough so I can still make a comeback. I'm very happy to be back. I want to be back, and I missed playing with the guys. But my break, I think, did me really well."

Just to show that an old dog can still learn new tricks, De Kock was happy that he could still experience something fresh on the recent tour whilist making some new friends along the way.

"It's my first time playing white-ball cricket in Pakistan and I learnt a couple of things about my own game," he said. "The wickets stayed low, reverse swing and there was a bit of a turn, so it was about how we adjusted to that.

“I set myself really high standards. I always look at myself in the mirror if I drop my standards or not. I just hope it keeps working for me.

"Nice to be back here with the team, the extra responsibility is nice. I haven't batted with a lot of these guys before so new faces is nice, making new friends, so it's great to be back.”