Veteran South Africa batter Dean Elgar will retire from international cricket at the end of the forthcoming two-Test series against India. The 36-year-old's decision was communicated by Cricket South Africa on Thursday (December 22) with the games in Centurion and Cape Town bringing down the curtains on a 12-year career in which Elgar played more than 80 Tests, scored over 5000 runs and led the Proteas 17 times in the longest form of the game.
"As they say, 'all good things come to an end', and the Indian home series will be my last, as I have made the decision to retire from our beautiful game. A game that has given me so much. The Cape Town Test will be my last. My favourite stadium in the world. A place I scored my first Test run against New Zealand and hopefully my last too," Elgar was quoted as saying in a CSA release.
Elgar made his debut on South Africa's tour of Australia in 2012, when they were ranked No.1 in the world. He became the 38th player to record a pair on debut - a list that stands at 45 now - but scored a century in his third match and would go on to record 13 hundreds, against all Test opposition other than Pakistan or Zimbabwe. His favourite opponents were Sri Lanka, against whom he scored a match-winning hundred in Galle in 2014, followed by two more centuries in 2017 and 2021.
Elgar stood in as captain for Faf du Plessis, who was on paternity leave, for the first Test of South Africa's 2017 tour of England and again for two Tests against Pakistan in 2019 but was named permanent captain of South Africa's Test side in mid-2021. He led South Africa to series wins in West Indies, against India at home, and in a drawn series against New Zealand in early 2022, which saw them top the World Test Championship (WTC) table at the time. But away losses to England and Australia in 2022-23 meant South Africa missed out on the WTC final earlier this year.
