Quinton de Kock’s IPL struggles: Can the Proteas star overcome inconsistency for Mumbai Indians?

Michael Sherman

iol|24-04-2026

Inconsistency has often plagued the career of the wildly talented Quinton de Kock, and it seems that again is the case for the Proteas star in this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL).

It has to be said, he has had limited game time for the Mumbai Indians (MI) as they opted to go with Ryan Rickelton and Rohit Sharma in their first four matches of this year’s edition. With certain starter Sharma out through injury since April 12, it has opened a door on the MI side.

In De Kock’s first match of the season, he opened alongside his Proteas teammate Rickelton.
In that match against the Punjab Kings at Wankhede on April 16.
As Rickelton fell early, De Kock went on to score a masterful ton and ended unbeaten on 112 from just 60 balls. Since then, though, he’s scored 13 and 7.

Rickelton’s Last MI Appearance and De Kock’s Uncertain Future Amid Low Scores

For Rickelton, that was his last appearance to date for MI. In his five knocks, he made two good scores - 81 and 37 - while the rest were single-digit efforts.
For De Kock now, he will also have to be concerned about how long MI will keep him in the first XI if his low scores continue for more than a few matches.
However, MI is likely to stick with De Kock as he is vastly experienced and his reputation alone will give him some leeway.

It will be a tad worrying for De Kock as his form in the T20 World Cup in February and March was also fairly inconsistent.
While he made more starts with only two single-figure scores in eight matches, he only had two knocks where he made over 25 (59 v Afghanistan and 47 v West Indies).

Taking all this recent form into account, it will indeed be interesting to see how De Kock goes and if MI will stick with him if he continues with a few more low scores.
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