Dravid has made a lot of difference to DD: De Kock

With three wins in their last four matches, Delhi are on a roll as against their poor run in the last three seasons. De Kock believes a great coach like Rahul Dravid and the perfectly balanced team in Delhi have jelled together to turn them around. 

The South African was all praise for former Indian captain Dravid. “You don’t run into a lot of coaches who have played the game, especially batting coaches. Dravid has played the game, so he knows what he is talking about. He knows how the game works. So it is much easier taking advice from him than from a coach who hasn’t really played too much. And he makes us comforta- ble, gives us the freedom to express ourselves.” 

On Delhi Daredevils’ form this year, de Kock said, ”I think we just need to keep things simple, whether it is about game plans or changes we make in our combination. We need to keep everything simple. Also, we need to stay humble because the Daredevils haven’t won a lot recently. Once you start winning, you need to stay grounded because this is a long tournament.” 

The South African opener said the team had no doubt it could chase down the target set by Royal Challengers. ”It wasn’t just me alone, but all boys thought that 190-odd was a par score on that small ground. So we were very confident as a team while chasing it down. Even though we lost wickets on the way, we knew that our batting was deep (almost till number ten) and we would chase it down. For me, it was just a matter of grinding it out in the middle. I am not a big six hitter and I prefer to find the gaps,” he said. 

De Kock said he is happy with his form both for South Africa and for Delhi in IPL.”I haven’t been hitting too many balls in the net to be honest. It is all about mind-set really. It is about how you play the game, how you feel about it, how you go about preparing for each match. While I am still young, I have already played a number of games in my career. So I know what to do now and how to keep that feeling going.” 

The 23-year-old said he likes the balanced side of Delhi and fits into the team perfectly well. “It’s about comfort and sharing that with the youngsters as well as the seniors. The young players in the squad feel the same about me as I feel about them. Obviously, I have played a lot more at the international level, so it is about sharing my experience and they try to find confidence from that as well. They want to talk about how I got where I am in my career,” he said. “The likes of Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson and Karun Nair have a lot of talent. While it isn’t easy getting into the Indian team, they will soon be playing for India and for a long time.”