Quinton de Kock

Quinton de Kock player profile

Quinton de Kock's fearless striking and handy glovework earned him comparisons to greats of the game like Adam Gilchrist and Mark Boucher early in his career. By 21, he shared the record for the most successive ODI centuries - three - before it was bettered by Kumar Sangakkara. A year later, he had established himself in all three formats for South Africa.

De Kock grew up as a baseball player and even considered a move to the United States, but his father convinced him to pursue cricket instead. He attended King Edward VII High School, the alma mater of Graeme Smith and Neil McKenzie, and was picked for the South African U-19 side, which he captained briefly. He also topped the batting charts for South Africa in the 2012 junior World Cup in Australia.

Later that year he caught the national selectors' eyes when he starred in a match-winning partnership with McKenzie in the Champions League T20 against Mumbai Indians. He also finished fourth in the first-class rankings in the 2012-13 season.

After a bit of a false start to his international career - he didn't do much against New Zealand and Sri Lanka in 2012 and 2013 - he scored his first ODI hundred against Pakistan later that year. Then came the three in a row against India, followed by his Test debut early in 2014.

An ankle injury threatened to put de Kock out of the 2015 World Cup, but he recovered quickly - if only to struggle through that tournament and a series against Bangladesh, after which he was dropped and spent some productive time in the A team.

His first Test hundred came against England in Centurion in 2016, and he followed that up with one against Australia three matches later in Adelaide, in a series South Africa won 2-1. He also hit his stride in the shortest format, scoring his maiden half-century in the T20 World Cup that year, in which he was South Africa's most successful batter. Elsewhere in T20, he was a key part of the Mumbai Indians side that won two IPL titles on the trot at the tail end of the 2010s, opening their batting and keeping.

In late 2021, de Kock announced a shock retirement from Tests, becoming another in a growing list of top all-format players seeking to concentrate on the white-ball formats.

Quinton de Kock IPL factfile

- Quinton de Kock made his IPL debut in 2013 for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) but was only given three games. A quiet season followed in 2014 after he was bought by Delhi Capitals (then Delhi Daredevils).

- In his second season with Delhi, he scored two half-centuries in three games and finally had his breakout season in 2016. He scored 445 runs, hitting his maiden century in the tournament as well.

- After a disappointing season with Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in 2018, he was snapped up by Mumbai Indians (MI).

- De Kock went past the 500-run mark both in 2019 and 2020, forming a dangerous opening partnership with Rohit Sharma to help Mumbai Indians win back-to-back titles.

- New franchise Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) bought him at the IPL 2022 mega auction and he enjoyed a stellar season, scoring 508 runs as they made it to the playoffs.

- He hammered a career-best unbeaten 140 not out off 70 against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in IPL 2022, as he and KL Rahul put on an unbroken 210 to break the record for the biggest opening partnership in the tournament's history.