Durban - Dean Elgar has been forced to take plenty of rough with the smooth in his Test career, but after 25 Tests he’s one of the more experienced players in a young Proteas side that is trying to establish its own identity and momentum.
The nuggety left-hander started his journey at rock bottom with a pair, courtesy of a ferocious Mitchell Johnson on a bouncy WACA pitch in Perth nearly four years ago, but now, after batting in a number of positions, he’s made the opening spot his own.
Six weeks after his sobering start, he’d registered his first century against New Zealand - albeit batting at No 7 - and since then he’s finally settled down in the opener’s position that he’s occupied throughout his domestic career.
Altogether he’s struck four centuries and scored 1 249 runs at an average of 36.74.
Talking about his shaky start, the 29-year-old from Welkom admitted that it had been tough.
“It was disruptive, particularly when you bat in places you’re not used to. It was also a case of not really knowing where you fit in the team and even whether you do fit in the team. But now that I’ve been in the set-up for a bit longer, I would like to think that I’ve established myself and made the opening spot my own. It’s been a rough road, but I can say now that I feel a lot more comfortable with my game.”
Elgar certainly has happy memories of Kingsmead where South Africa and New Zealand play the first Test starting on Friday. He struck a superb unbeaten century - arguably his most convincing Test innings - in a losing cause in last year’s Boxing Day Test against England.
“It’s a good hunting ground for me,” he acknowledged. “I’ve always felt that it’s a wicket where you can get in and really score big.”
After batting with a variety of opening partners, including Alviro Petersen, Stiaan van Zyl and Temba Bavuma, Elgar hopes he and Stephen Cook can establish themselves at the top of the order.
“Stephen is an experienced cricketer who’s spent all his career opening, so I feel he’s the man for the job. Although we’ve only had one game for the Proteas (in which Cook scored a century in the fourth Test against England), we have opened a number of times for South Africa A’ so he’s not an unfamiliar partner. Hopefully, we can establish some longevity as a pair.”
Just as he and Cook hope to establish their partnership, so Elgar believes the key to South Africa arresting their slide in the world rankings lies in young players establishing themselves in the team.
“There are a lot of new guys, but I think that’s exciting and certainly not a disadvantage. We haven’t had the greatest results of late, but we know the crop we have now are the guys for the job. Success may take a little time, but it’s a question of guys getting established.”
Elgar said there was a buzz around the team: “The guys are a bit fed up with the white ball (after a succession of ODIs and T20s during the last eight months), and they feel rejuvenated at the prospect of playing Test cricket again. I think the intensity in the squad is the best I’ve seen it.”
It’s a feeling that received plenty of impetus yesterday when the players watched Wayde van Niekerk smash Michael Johnson’s 400m world record in his golden Olympic run in Rio.
“Everybody was talking about it at breakfast and the tweets were going out. It was an unbelievable achievement for his country and throughout the world, especially with all the negativity that’s been going around sport of late. It’s something to really unite the guys and hopefully we can start to do something similar and get the people behind us,” Elgar said.
The Star