Dean Elgar to call it a day from international cricket after India Tests

Former South Africa Test skipper Dean Elgar has announced that the two-match Test match series against India will be his last in the whites, bringing the curtains down on a 12-year-long international career. Elgar, who has already represented his country in 84 Tests, is considered one of the finest modern-day Test openers, with 5146 Test runs that came at an average of 37.28.

"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 said in a statement released by Cricket South Africa.

"Playing the game of cricket has always been a dream of mine, but having the opportunity to represent your country is the ultimate. Having had the privilege to do it for 12 years internationally is simply beyond my wildest dreams. It has been an incredible journey that I have been fortunate enough to have."

He had an anti-climatic start to his Test career in which he scored a pair in Perth, but after he was promoted to open the batting with Graeme Smith, he really started to blossom. An aggressive 160 in Visakhapatnam in 2019 against the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja spoke of the qualities he endured as a Test cricketer, which duly resulted in CSA handing him the captaincy responsibility after Faf du Plessis’ tenure came to an end.