Reason Revealed: Why Quinton de Kock Doesn't Wear His Wicketkeeping Pads While Taking To The Stumps

South Africa and Mumbai Indians wicketkeeper-batsman, Quinton De Kock does not wear the external leg pads while keeping wickets and instead wears the internal smaller pads. One of the most consistent batsmen in IPL and world cricket, De Kock was seen without his regular-sized external leg pads while keeping and it has very interesting to find the reason behind it.

De Kock did not play in the first game for Mumbai as he had to be quarantined after returning from the series against Pakistan. Chris Lynn made his debut for Mumbai in his place and scored a good knock of 49 off 35 balls. De Kock was available for the second game and Mumbai had no second thoughts in replacing in-form Chris Lynn with De Kock, but De Kock was dismissed for just 2 runs off 6 deliveries against KKR.

Effective Method Of Wicket Keeping

Quinton De Kock’s method of wearing internal small pads inside the pants instead of the external leg pads has helped him in many ways. It has bettered his movement and agility behind the stumps and has also increased the possibilities of effecting a run-out. The law does not mention that it is compulsory for the keeper to wear external leg pads.

It has also reduced a lot of byes and leg byes for his franchise with his comfortable movements and has facilitated him to go for some difficult catches that aren’t possible to be taken with the external pads which have some limitations. The numbers have been very good for Quinton De Kock behind the stumps as he has taken 47 catches and effected 13 stumps and also has the highest dismissal per game ratio of 1 among all the wicket keepers.

Fashion To Wear Internal Pads

Indeed, it has become a fashion for the wicket keepers to wear internal pads instead of the regular external leg pads. We have already seen in the women’s cricket when England wicketkeeper Sarah Taylor was wearing shin pads and it did happen in the IPL before with Heinrich Klassen when he used to play for the Rajasthan team. One of the greatest wicket keepers of all time, MS Dhoni has experimented in the World Cup too.

Unless it is under the laws and has been very effective, certainly the keepers will have thoughts of changing their traditional way into wearing internal pads.