De Kock walks a tightrope towards the IPL

Time was when the IPL was a shop window for players who wanted to progress to the international level. Now it's the other way round. Players hope good performances for their national team catch the eye of franchise owners in cricket's greatest show on earth.

It would be cynical to suggest that's what prompted Quinton de Kock to rescind his retirement from South Africa's teams after 468 days. That said, he wasn't retained by Kolkata Knight Riders. If De Kock wants to live in the manner to which he has become accustomed, he will need a new gig.

So, what to do to get noticed with the IPL auction looming in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday? How about hit Arshdeep Singh for three sixes, Axar Patel for two and Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya for one each? And take three fours off Pandya, and one each off Arshdeep and Varun Chakravarthy?

De Kock did all that at New Chandigarh on Thursday to score 90 off 46 at a strike rate of 195.65. He did more than anyone except Ottneil Baartman – who took 4/24 – to help South Africa win by 51 runs and level the T20I series with three games left to play.

Asked after the match what made him retire, De Kock said: "I was getting sick of it. I was looking for a new challenge and I wasn't getting it. As everyone knows, you never know what you have until you've lost it."

The latter sentiment also goes for his IPL career, which he did his bit to extend with his latest performance. From his comeback in a T20I against Namibia on October 11, and before Thursday's innings, De Kock scored 1, 23, 7, 0 and 0 in the format. Those are not numbers that excite IPL franchise owners.

Considering his scintillating display on Thursday in the wake of five false starts, it would be interesting to know how De Kock feels about the fact that he will likely take another trip to the crease in the third T20I in Dharamsala on Sunday.

He looked properly in form in New Chandigarh and probably welcomes another opportunity to build on that foundation. But he will also know that it would take just one rasping delivery with the new ball to undo his good work and perhaps make prospective paymasters think again.

So it might be in his best interests to leave his 90 as the freshest memory in their minds. But what if he goes just 10 runs further at the most arresting arena in the game? Who could deny De Kock a deal if he earns the right to raise his bat towards the Himalayas brooding in the distance?

It's De Kock's tightrope to walk. Now is not the time to look down, much less fall off.

Happily for him he has also been playing ODIs. He made an unbeaten 123 off 119 against Pakistan in Lahore last month, when he scored half-centuries in his other two innings in the series. He scored 0 and 8 in his two innings against India, but came good with 106 off 89 in Visakhapatnam.

All told in De Kock's second innings in the more sedate white-ball format, he has scored 353 runs off 362 balls in six innings at an average of 70.60.

Of the rest of South Africa's T20I squad in India, Reeza Hendricks, George Linde, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi and Anrich Nortje are also in the auction. Of them, only Miller and Nortje are in De Kock's league as a drawcard.

Miller scored 100 not out off 67 in a Champions Trophy match against New Zealand in Lahore in March, but that is his only score of more than 20 in his five white-ball international innings this year.

Because of a back injury, the first T20I in Cuttack on Tuesday was Nortje's first game in any format for South Africa in more than 18 months. He started and ended his four overs in the upper 140 kilometres-an-hour and didn't struggle with line or length, but he went wicketless at an economy rate of 10.25.

Whether Miller, at 36, remains among the most lethal finishers in the game is uncertain. As is whether the often injured Nortje, who didn't play on Thursday, will be fit when the IPL starts in March.

That De Kock is the player he was before he interrupted his international career is also not quite nailed down, even if he has made a strong case for himself. Another hammer blow on Sunday would settle the issue.