Quinton de Kock announced his retirement from Test cricket, at just 29 years of age

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Proteas wicket-keeper batsmen Quinton de Kock had taken the retirement from the Test cricket in the ongoing Test series against India while he wants to spend more time with his family as the reason for his decision.

Quinton de Kock has announced his retirement from test cricket, at just 29 years of age. He quit the test format between the ongoing test series against India. Everybody has noticed that he was mentally unstable and didn’t focus on the game. 

Twice he chopped on, first to Shardul. In the match, he could only manage to score 34 and 21 runs. A South Africa team statement released hours after the home side lost by 113 runs said De Kock had retired from the Test cricket. 

He made his Test debut against Australia in 2014. He has represented Africa in 54 test matches and scored 3300 runs at an average of 38.82 with six centuries. Among Proteas current players, only Dean Elgar could score more than de Kock. 

But Elgar has also had 31 more innings. He gave the reason for retiring the test cricket that he wants to spend more time with his family and also he is welcoming his new birth baby in the next month.

“This is not a decision that I have come to very easily,”

the release quoted De Kock as saying.

“I have taken a lot of time to think about what my future looks like and what needs to take priority in my life now that Sasha and I are about to welcome our first child into this world and look to grow our family beyond that. My family is everything to me and I want to have the time and space to be able to be with them during this new and exciting chapter of our lives.

“I love Test cricket and I love representing my country and all that it comes with. I’ve enjoyed the ups and the downs, the celebrations, and even the disappointments, but now I’ve found something that I love even more.

“In life, you can buy almost everything except for time, and right now, it’s time to do right by the people that mean the most to me.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been a part of my Test cricket journey from the very beginning. To my coaches, teammates, the various management teams, and my family and friends – I couldn’t have shown up as I did without your support.

“This is not the end of my career as a Protea, I’m fully committed to white-ball cricket and representing my country to the best of my ability for the foreseeable future.”

De Kock was to have taken his leave of the test team for the rest of the series against India in any event, but his decision will shock cricket-minded South Africans. Too often in recent years, they have had to endure their best and the brightest walking away in some sense or another.

Now De Kock has joined them in the wake of a worrying performance by his former team at a ground where they used to be formidable. This wasn’t going to be a happy new year in the first place. Now it is even more unhappy.

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