South Africa Test captaincy would mean a lot, admits Dean Elgar

05/25/2020

Veteran batsman Dean Elgar has expressed his desire to lead the South African Test side, replacing Faf du Plessis, who stepped down as skipper before the COVID-19 pandemic. While Quinton de Kock was named the captain of the limited-overs sides, CSA is yet to appoint a Test skipper.

South Africa ended their cricketing year of 2019 with a win over England in the first of the four-match Test series, at Centurion. As they stepped into 2020, the hosts eventually lost the Test series 3-1 to England. The Test fixtures were followed by a three-match ODI series, which was drawn 1-1, and a three-match T20I series which was sealed by England 2-1.

The full-fledged tour was finally wrapped up on February 16 and it was on the following day that Faf du Plessis announced to step down as captain across formats. While Cricket South Africa already named Quinton de Kock as du Plessis’ successor in the white-ball formats, the spot for Test skipper still remained vacant.

However, CSA’s director of cricket Graeme Smith had clarified that de Kock won’t be appointed as Test captain of South Africa. In this light, veteran opener Elgar expressed that would be open to taking up the South Africa Test captaincy duty and believes his experience should stand him in good stead for the role. The 32-year-old southpaw, who has stood in as captain of the Test side a couple of times, thinks both his leadership experience and playing alongside influential personalities can only be an advantage for South Africa.

"I have done the captaincy thing in the past and I have done it from school level and provincial level‚ and now in a few professional franchise teams‚ and I have extremely enjoyed it. If I was asked to do the captaincy‚ definitely I will think hard and long about it because it would mean a lot to me,” Elgar said in an interview released by Cricket South Africa on Monday.

"I think my learning has definitely been quite vast in that regard because of the personnel that I have had before me in the change room. It has definitely been an eye-opener for me‚ a great learning curve‚ which I am extremely grateful for. As a person you never stop growing really. There is still a lot of growth coming and hopefully what I have learned I can pass it on to the younger guys," he added.

Meanwhile, Elgar’s opening partner Aiden Markram also expressed his eagerness to lead the test side, if given a chance.