Dubai: In what would come as a big setback for South Africa ahead of their game against West Indies on Tuesday, wicketkeeper-batter Quinton de Kock has made himself unavailable for the Super 12 game.
His absence will hurt South Africa as De Kock was the team’s highest scorer in their T20I series against West Indies earlier this year with 255 runs. At the toss, South Africa captain Temba Bavuma said de Kock has made himself unavailable due to personal reasons. Attacking opener Reeza Handricks replaced the left-handed de Kock in South Africa’s XI.
According to several reports, Quinton de Kock was dropped from the side because he didn’t want to “take a knee” together in support of a fight against racism. While the two events could be completely unrelated, he was the only player to not take a knee in South Africa’s opening match against England. Taking the knee is a popular gesture used by people all around the world to show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and the fight against racism. Many teams, including India, have taken a knee together in this T20 World Cup.
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. Quinton de Kock didn’t score much against Australia on Saturday. Opening alongside Bavuma, he only played 12 balls for seven runs.
