Dean Elgar (born 11 June 1987) is a South African

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er who played

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and

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, and also a former Test captain. He is a left-handed opening batter and a slow-left arm bowler. Elgar captained the

2006 Under-19 Cricket World Cup The 2006 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup was played in Sri Lanka from 2 to 15 February 2006. It was the sixth edition of the Under-19 Cricket World Cup. The final was played between Pakistan and India in Colombo, which Pakistan won by 38 runs, e ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

in 2006. He now plays for the

Northerns cricket team Northerns (formerly North Eastern Transvaal and Northern Transvaal) has played first-class cricket in South Africa since December 1937. Its territory is the area north of Johannesburg, including Pretoria. For the purposes of the SuperSport Ser ...

and Titans cricket team in the major South African cricket competitions. He was included in the Northerns team for the 2015 Africa T20 Cup. On 23 March 2018, he became the second batsman after Desmond Haynes to carry his bat through an innings on three occasions in Test cricket history. In March 2021,

Cricket South Africa Cricket South Africa aka CSA is the governing body for both professional and amateur cricket in South Africa. In 1991, the separate South African Cricket Union and the South African Cricket Board merged to form the United Cricket Board of South ...

announced that Elgar had been appointed as South Africa's Test captain, taking over the role from Quinton de Kock.

International career

Debut years

Elgar was selected for the Sri Lankan ODI series in early 2012 but had to withdraw citing injury. He eventually made his ODI debut against

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in a rain-abandoned match, but found success in his second match, scoring 15 in his maiden innings before being bowled by Graeme Swann. Bowling his left-arm spin, Elgar had Craig Kieswetter caught out off only his third delivery in ODI Cricket. In the field, Elgar took an incredible catch of

Jonathan Trott Ian Jonathan Leonard Trott (born 22 April 1981) is a South African-born English former professional cricketer who played international cricket for the England cricket team and is the current head coach of the Afghanistan cricket team. Domestical ...

then caught

Eoin Morgan Eoin Joseph Gerard Morgan (born 10 September 1986) is an Irish-born English former cricketer and current commentator. He captained the England cricket team in limited overs cricket from 2015 until his international retirement in June 2022. He ...

out in a South African victory. Elgar made his test debut against

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on 30 November 2012 and scored a duck in his maiden test innings. He followed this with another duck in the second innings to complete a pair of ducks on debut. On 12 January 2013, Elgar scored his maiden test century against

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. The retirement of

Graeme Smith Graeme Craig Smith (born 1 February 1981) is a South African cricket commentator and former cricketer who played for South Africa national cricket team, South Africa in all formats. In 2003, he was appointed Captain (cricket), captain of the So ...

created a regular opportunity for Elgar in his specialist position at the top of the order in Test cricket. Elgar made 103, against Sri Lanka on 16 July 2014, and followed up with 121 against West Indies at St George's Oval, a ground where he scored almost half of his career international test runs, and recorded the most fifties.

Record opener

On 28 December 2015, Elgar became the first South African opener to carry his bat in a Test innings since Gary Kirsten in 1997, when he finished 118 not out against England. On 5 November 2016, Elgar scored 127 during the first Test against Australia at

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

. The partnership of 250 by himself and JP Duminy in the match was recorded as South Africa's highest partnership in Perth, the third highest overall in Perth, and their second highest against Australia. On 11 March 2017, against New Zealand he became the first South African opener to face 200 or more balls in both innings of a Test. On 27 January 2018, against India Elgar became the first South African to carry his bat twice in Tests since 1992. On 23 March 2018, Elgar carried the bat for the third time in his test career scoring an unbeaten 141 against Australia when South Africa was bowled out for 311 in the first innings of the 3rd test, equalling the record with Desmond Haynes of West Indies. With this achievement, he also became the only batsman to carry his bat in an innings of a test match twice in a single calendar year.

Captaincy

Elgar stood in for regular Test captain

Faf du Plessis François "Faf" du Plessis ( ; born 13 July 1984) is a South African professional cricketer and former captain of the South Africa national cricket team. He is considered one of the greatest fielders of all time and among the best all-format ...

when he missed the first Test against England in 2017, following the birth of his first child. In January 2019, during Pakistan series, South Africa's captain Faf du Plessis was penalised for a slow over-rate in the second Test and was suspended for the third and final Test of the series. Elgar was named as the stand-in captain for the third Test. He took over as full-time test captain, following the resignation of Quinton de Kock from the position. His first test as captain came against the West Indies in June 2021. South Africa won this match by an innings and 63 runs and then won the following test by 158 runs, giving Elgar a 2–0 victory in his debut series as captain. In January 2022, during the 2021–22 Indian tour of South Africa Elgar scored an unbeaten 96 in the second test to guide South Africa to a seven wicket victory and draw the series level. On 3rd January 2024, Elgar played his last test for

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

against

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, which concluded on 4th January, at Newlands in Cape Town, before retiring from international cricket.

Domestic and franchise cricket

In September 2019, Elgar was named in the squad for the

Tshwane Spartans Tshwane Spartans were a city-based franchise team of the South African Mzansi Super League (MSL) Twenty20 cricket tournament. The team was based at SuperSport Park in Centurion. Tshwane Spartans played in the first two editions of the MLS in ...

team for the 2019 Mzansi Super League tournament. In April 2021, he was named in Northerns' squad, ahead of the 2021–22 cricket season in South Africa. In February 2022, Elgar was named as the captain of the

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for the 2021–22 CSA T20 Challenge.

List of international centuries

Elgar has scored 14 centuries (100 or more runs in a single

innings An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings also means the period in which an individual player bats (acts as either striker or nonstriker). In cricket and rounders, "innings" is ...

) in

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

. Elgar made his Test debut against Australis at the Waca,

in November 2012. His highest Test score of 199 came against

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

at the Senwes Park,

Potchefstroom Potchefstroom ( ; ), colloquially known as Potch, is an college town, academic city in the North West (South African province), North West Province of South Africa. It hosts the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University. Potchefstro ...

in September 2018. He has not scored any century in

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

(ODI) matches or

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

International (T20I) matches.

References

External links

*
Dean Elgar
s profile page on Wisden {{DEFAULTSORT:Elgar, Dean 1987 births Living people Sportspeople from Welkom South African cricketers Free State cricketers Knights cricketers 21st-century South African sportsmen South Africa Test cricketers South Africa One Day International cricketers Somerset cricketers Surrey cricketers South African expatriate cricketers in England Titans cricketers Tshwane Spartans cricketers South Africa Test cricket captains Essex cricketers