Ahmedabad, Feb 21 (PTI) Varun Chakravarthy has been a thorn in the flesh for the South African batters and senior pro Quinton de Kock expects his younger teammates to not try something out of the box while using their natural instincts at the right time. Chakravarthy has picked up 22 wickets in eight T20I games against South Africa, including 10 wickets in the recent bilateral series in December.
However, the Proteas have looked a more balanced side in the last two months and De Kock said all members have done a bit more homework on facing the spinner who bowls both off-breaks and leg-breaks.
Asked about how to tackle Chakravarthy, De Kock replied: “I think everyone has their own way of going about it. I think just at the end of the day our guys just have to stick to their own strengths and use their instincts at the right time. I think that’s it,” De Kock said on the eve of their Super Eights game against India.
“He is a very good bowler at the moment and obviously he bowled really well against us in the series, like two months ago. Hopefully, the guys have, after that series, just had a little bit more time to have a look at him, speak about how they’re going to play against him. So, hopefully with their plans, it comes off.” But there was a sense of respect about what he offered next.
“If the plan doesn’t come off there’s a reason why (it won’t). It’s probably because he (Varun) is the number one T20 spinner in the world. So, we’ll have to see what we can do.” The reticent De Kock also didn’t want to read too much into Abhishek Sharma’s hat-trick of ducks.
“He’s the number one T20 batsman in the world at the moment according to the ranking, so he must keep doing what he is doing. He’s obviously quite young so he is bound to fail. So being number one obviously means something. I’m sure at some point he’s going to play an important knock,” De Kock said when asked if there was any advice for the struggling Indian opener.
Having played a lot against each other in the past few months, De Kock believed that there is not much to choose between the two sides and the one that handles pressure better on a given day would go on to win the game.
“I think it’s going to make for quite a good game tomorrow because we’ve played against each other quite a bit over the last two months. And to be honest, the teams haven’t really changed much.
“And not even just playing against India. I think in the IPL, we’re always playing against each other a lot. Everyone knows each other, how everyone plays, how everybody thinks. So I think it’s just a matter of being out there who falls under the pressure first,” De Kock said. PTI KHS KHS UNG
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