Gautam Gambhir compares Quinton de Kock with Kumar Sangakkara and Brian Lara

Ahead of the T20I series between India and South Africa, former India opener had lavished praise on the Proteas skipper Quinton de Kock. De Kock is making his captaincy debut with the upcoming series and is likely to be persisted with the same in the coming days. South Africa are eyeing the next year’s T20 World Cup and De Kock looks the likely man to lead them in the tournament.

The southpaw would be eyeing an impressive start to his captaincy career and Gambhir’s recent statement is sure to motivate him. The former India international compared de Kock with the legendary Brian Lara and Kumar Sangakkara. Lara and Sangakkara are two of the greatest left-handers to have graced the game and de Kock is bound to be delighted with the comparison.

Gambhir was all praise for De Kock’s batting style and wished him well for the captaincy debut. At the same time, the legendary opener also hoped that the wicketkeeper-batsman would not compromise with his batting after being given the responsibility of a captain.

“In the context of South Africa’s tour of India, the visitors may relate to this as this is their first international engagement after a forgetful World Cup campaign. I like Quinton de Kock. He is one of those gorgeous left-handers which I always aspired to be but could never be. In full flow, he reminds me of Kumara Sangakkara and Brian Lara. Hopefully, he delivers as a captain but not at the cost of curtailing fluidity of his batting,” Gambhir wrote in his column for the TOI.

Opportunity for the youngsters

Gautam Gambhir further wrote that the upcoming series is a chance for the youngsters to seal their place in the team. He pointed out the likes of Manish Pandey, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and others as he asked them to make the most of the chance ahead of next year’s T20 World Cup.

“It is another opportunity for young Indian batsmen to cement their place in the side. Manish Pandey looks much younger than his age of 29. Shreyas Iyer explained enough in the West Indies that he is a great deal more than the ‘South Bombay’ swag. KL Rahul is a force in white-ball format. Rishabh Pant is always exciting but he has to watch his back as my favorite Sanju Samson is throwing some serious challenges at him. It is an exciting series as there are a lot of individual battles going on considering the T20 World Cup next year,” wrote Gambhir.