Newly-appointed South African Test captain Dean Elgar is determined to ensure Proteas are back to their absolute best during his tenure at the helm over the next two years.
Elgar will begin his captaincy stint with the forthcoming tour of the Caribbean, where South Africa take on the West Indies in a two-match series, starting on June 10 in St Lucia.
Speaking ahead of his team’s departure to St Lucia via Paris, Elgar admitted South Africa’s task to stand resurrected as a Test team won’t be any easy given their issues but also didn’t sound pessimistic about the journey ahead.
“Now that we are in a new chapter, we need to play more cricket and better cricket. We are conscious that over the last period we haven’t been very consistent. Our skill level hasn’t been where it should be. We need to get back to a bit more of a consistent nature of cricket; a bit more of a South African way,”
Elgar was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
Dwelling on the “South African way”, Elgar mentioned he wants the team to get back to producing match-defining centuries and five-fers.
“We’ve always had a batting line-up that has scored heavily. And fast bowlers. That’s the South African way. We need to get back to scoring big hundreds and taking five-fors like it used to be.”
he said.
Elgar’s right. Since December 2019, South Africa have had only three instances of one of their batsmen scoring a Test hundred and have had only six five-fers to show for their bowling effort across eight Test matches, of which they’ve understandably lost five.
SA recently slipped to their lowest ever Test ranking, No. 7, which reflects their unprecedented decline, borne out of multiple big-name retirements when the system is already reeling from a massive talent exodus for a variety of reasons.
But Elgar has the opportunity to turn it all around. The skipper spoke of how his immediate attention will be to get everyone on the same boat in terms of how he wishes the team to be and play going forward.
“It’s trying to change players’ mindsets; to try and get that buy-in from every individual and to try and get them to trust your process going forward,” he said. “One of the more challenging aspects of the job will be to try and get the trust of the players so that they can trust the process, to believe in the process and to do it quickly and adapt quickly. It’s something I believe very strongly in.”
The series against West Indies was scheduled for last year but had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Back then, it was part of the inaugural World Test Championship cycle but won’t anymore count towards the league, where both the teams couldn’t make the tournament final.
According to the SOPs designed for the trip amid the pandemic, South Africa will fly across to the Caribbean on Monday and serve a three-day quarantine upon arrival in St Lucia. If the Proteas contingent gives two repeated negative COVID-19 tests, they’ll be allowed to train from the fourth day, “but will remain limited to their rooms and will be able to make use of all the hotel’s facilities after seven days,” reported ESPNcricinfo.
The South Africans, who recently confirmed their extended touring party, have also been vaccinated ahead of the tour. The second Test will be played from June 18-22 before the focus shifts to the five-match T20I series, part of both teams’ build-up towards the T20 World Cup.
