SA VS IND Tests: South African opener Dean Elgar has confirmed the retirement speculations as he's set to retire after the conclusion of the two-match Test series against India at home. The veteran will bring an end to his stellar 11-year Test career, where he has amassed 5146 runs till now, at an average of 37.29, and during the process, notched up 13 centuries and 23 half-centuries.
The former South Africa captain has had a topsy-turvy career and didn't have a much memorable run as the skipper of Proteas. He first had a glance at captaincy when he stood-in as a stand-in captain for Faf Du Plessis against England at Lord's but South Africa ended up losing the Test match comprehensively. He was appointed as the Test skipper of Proteas in 2021 but was sacked after an year due to adverse results, thereby, bringing an end to his torrid run as a skipper. It affected his batting performances too as his last Test century was way back in January 2021, against Sri Lanka, at home.
Dean Elgar has always been a gritty batsman with sheer resilience and has often been the player who carried the reputation of taking away the shine off the ball in order to make proceedings much easier for swashbuckling middle order batters to pounce upon. His form lately has been a subject of speculation as he gets selected anyway but what makes him handy is not only the fact that he takes away the shine off the ball, but also time it to perfection. Dean Elgar, by most of the cricket experts, is labelled as a techincally sound batter, with quick feet and has a nose for perfect timing off the middle of the bat oftentimes.
Dean Elgar's retirement will see the dawn of a new era under the skipper Temba Bavuma as he leaves with a void to fill-in at the top of the order for the young batters who'll try to fill in the shoes. Dean's farewell series starts this Boxing Day (Decemeber 26) at the SuperSport Park, Centurion, against India.