Dean Elgar eyeing to replace Faf du Plessis as South Africa's Test captain

South Africa have been struggling across all the formats since the World Cup last year. Their long-term captain Faf du Plessis stepped down from the captaincy after losing the Test series against England at home earlier this year. Quinton de Kock was then named the skipper for the limited-overs format and the team fared decently under him as well.

This led to the possibility of De Kock getting the mantle of the Tests as well. But Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) Director of Cricket Graeme Smith denied it stating that they don’t want to burden the wicketkeeper-batsman with a lot of responsibilities. Even as the CSA is exploring options to name the skipper, Dean Elgar has expressed his interest in leading the team.

Elgar is one of the senior players in the team currently but is going through a rough patch since the India tour in October last year. After scoring 160 in Vizag in the first innings of the opening Test, the left-hander has mustered only 316 runs in 13 innings at an average of 26.33 with only a solitary half-century.

Leadership comes naturally to me, says Dean Elgar

Dean Elgar realises that it is not going to be easy to lead South Africa in Tests especially at a time, when the team is lacking experienced cricketers. However, the southpaw feels leadership comes naturally to him and stated that he has enough captaincy experience.

“It’s definitely not an easy journey being a test captain but I think leadership is something that comes extremely naturally to me. “I’ve captained teams in the past, right up from school level to the provincial level and at the franchise level. I enjoyed it extremely and if I was asked to take on the captaincy it’s definitely something I would think long and hard about because it would mean a lot to me,” the 32-year-old was quoted as saying by India Today.

Elgar possesses enough experience at the international level as well to take the team forward in Faf du Plessis’ presence. He has played 63 Tests amassing 3888 runs at an average of 38.49 with 12 centuries and 14 half-centuries to his name.