The South African batters have been plagued by Varun Chakravarthy, and senior pro Quinton de Kock expects his younger teammates to use their instincts when they need to and not try anything new.
In eight Twenty20 International matches against South Africa, Chakravarthy has claimed 22 wickets, including 10 in the most recent bilateral series in December.
But during the past two months, the Proteas have appeared to be a more well-rounded team, and according to De Kock, every member has done a little more research on how to deal with a spinner who uses both leg-breaks and off-breaks.
When asked how he would approach Chakravarthy, De Kock responded: “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.”
“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,” De Kock said on the eve of their Super Eights game against India.
However, there was a feeling of appreciation for his subsequent remarks.
“If the plan doesn’t come off there’s a reason why (it won’t). It’s probably because he (Varun) is the No. 1 T20 spinner in the world. So, we’ll have to see what we can do.”
De Kock was similarly cautious about interpreting Abhishek Sharma’s hat-trick of ducks.
When asked if there was any advice for the struggling Indian opener, De Kock said, “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 thought that since the two teams had played each other a lot in recent months, there wasn’t much to pick between them and that the team who could handle pressure the best on any given day would win.
“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.
