Dean Elgar, Gritty and Ugly, Sees the End of a Glorious Generation

Dean Elgar goes and with him goes South Africa’s last link with the team that has taken them to the top of the Test rankings in the early 2010s. He came in with a legendary line-up. Together, the line-up dominated at home and overseas for the earliest part of the last decade and looked menacing.

Walking into the dressing room for his first Test, Dean Elgar had stars from the early 2000s Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith with him. In them, he had arguably one of the greatest players Cricket has ever seen and the best opener/captain South Africa has produced.

With Faf du Plessis, Hashim Amla, Ab De Villiers, Dale Steyn, and Morne Morkel he had another group of cricketers who were in their prime. Ab De Villiers in particular established himself as a beast in World Cricket and could do it all becoming possibly their biggest superstar.

In Dean Elgar, South Africa had a batter who could not look more ugly or more gritty than him. He was the perfect replacement for Graeme Smith, who called time on his career two years after Elgar made his debut.

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Nine years on from Graeme Smith’s last Test we have Dean Elgar going. Over the nine years though he has established himself as a rare kind of player from a rare generation of star South African Cricketers. Between 2006 and 2015 South Africa only lost two Test series. Both defeats came to Australia both at home and away. From the current crop, Dean Elgar is one of the few and maybe the only one to come up in that period. His longest-standing teammate now, Kagiso Rabada, came in 2015 when the golden group started to move on.

Temba Bavuma is another who was a part of the team in 2014, but by the time he came in the side was on its downward spiral as the number one Test team. As Elgar grew into his Test career though he quickly filled in for Graeme Smith. He matched him as the gritty opener with a lot of character.

From 2013, he saw a senior retire each year starting with Jacques Kallis. With experience leaving, Dean Elgar had to take up the role of the experienced player in the side, anchoring the innings while also enforcing the innings. By the time he became Test Captain, Dean Elgar had the challenge of battling with transformation targets, transitions, and the differences in the side.

From being a part of the team at their highest he was all of a sudden guiding them through their worst phase in over two decades. Comparisons with Graeme Smith arose. Throughout his career as a batter, he looked like one of the worst players to watch aesthetically. He was stubborn though and very proactive.

He carried the bat on a few occasions throughout his career. At Johannesburg in particular, in January 2018, he came out with his grittiest knock on a pitch that threatened to call off the game with uneven bounce, facing India. Opposistions-wise, he loved playing against both India and Australia. He came up with a tough 160 in Vizag, which was the best part of a disastrous series.

He managed some similar knocks at home to bring South Africa back from a deficit to win a home series against India. Dean Elgar though despite all his achievements in Test Cricket could not replicate his success in the shorter formats.

He now walks away as the last remaining link between the current South African side and a South African team that was among the best in their history. His knock in the first Test had him transform his style of play one more time batting aggressively. He now leads the side one more time, leaving the international stage to mark the end of another era.