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Cape Town - JP Duminy has backed Quinton de Kock to get the most out of the struggling Proteas, believing that they will be ready to compete at the 2020 T20 World Cup in Australia.
READ: Duminy's dedication to changing lives through cricket
De Kock, who has been captaining South Africa in white ball cricket since the start of the year, has led his side to back-to-back 2-1 T20 series defeats against England and then Australia.
The nature of the defeats against Australia, though, have been of particular concern after the hosts were bowled out for 89 in Johannesburg in the first T20 and then 96 at Newlands in the third.
With the top order frail and the levels of performance incredibly inconsistent, pressure is mounting on new head coach Mark Boucher, who is yet to win a series in four attempts since taking on the job towards the end of last year.
In De Kock, however, Duminy believes the Proteas have a special cricketing mind who has the ability to turn things around.
"He has a genius brain when it comes to cricket," Duminy told Sport24 at a JP21 Foundation event in Mitchells Plain on Thursday that unveiled a new cricket oval at Hyacinth Primary School.
"He sees things that not a lot of us see on a cricket field.
"The important thing for him is to understand how to articulate that and to get the buy-in from other players. When you have this genius mind, sometimes it's a hit and miss with players because you see things before they happen.
"That's going to be the strength of his leadership if he gets players buying into certain strategies and plans.
"Everybody has their strengths and he will be very different to a Faf, AB and Graeme ... it's about finding your niche and understanding what your strengths are."
Looking to the future, Duminy said he would always remain optimistic when it came to South African cricket.
"I am a firm believer that we are a resilient nation. Transition takes time when you have a change of guard in terms of leadership," he said.
"Leadership is all about serving your team-mate and they need to discover how that's going to look and find the right combinations, particularly leading up to a World Cup.
"I'm pretty sure that the squad will be one that really competes at that tournament."
Duminy, who retired from all cricket at the beginning of the year, played 46 Tests, 199 ODIs and 81 T20s for his country between 2004 and 2019.
