South Africa’s new Test captain Quinton de Kock said that South Africa were still smarting from their 2-0 defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka in the last Test series played in 2019 and that he would like to put the record straight in the two Test series starting on Boxing Day at the Centurion.

“Against Sri Lanka we have a lot to rectify. They came here and beat us in our own grounds. We want to rectify that and win the series convincingly which we hope will happen,” said de Kock at a media conference yesterday.

“We want to quite aggressively throw the first punches. In the past we let other teams get in the first punches at us, that is one area we want to get better. It’s the way we want to play cricket – aggressively, clever, streetwise. That is the way the team needs to go forward so we are pushing for that type of cricket.” (ST) 

Arthur impressed with attitude of players after first practice