In a surprising turn of events, South African cricket opener Quinton de Kock has decided to retire from One Day International (ODI) cricket. This retirement will happen after the upcoming World Cup in India, which is scheduled for October and November. De Kock made this announcement shortly after Cricket South Africa (CSA) named him as part of the 15-member squad for the World Cup, with Temba Bavuma as the captain.
The issue with De Kock’s availability for the South African team arose when he signed up to play for the Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League (BBL) in Australia. This meant he might not be able to participate in the home white-ball series against India from December 10th to 21st, which overlaps with the BBL running from December 10th to January 5th.
At the age of 30, De Kock had recently taken a break from playing Twenty20 Internationals (T20I), where South Africa unfortunately lost all three matches against Australia. However, he’s set to return to action in the upcoming series of five ODIs starting on September 7th. His most recent cricket appearance was in the Major League Cricket (MLC) in July, where he played for the Seattle Orcas and ended up as the runner-up. Throughout his career, De Kock has impressed in 140 ODIs, scoring a total of 5966 runs with an average of 44.85. He has also achieved 17 centuries and 29 half-centuries.
Notably, De Kock had previously made a surprise decision to retire from Test cricket in December 2021. At that time, he expressed his desire to spend more time with his growing family, bidding farewell to the longest format of the game.
