Why South Africa's veteran cricketer Dean Elgar has announced retirement from cricket?

Former South African skipper Dean Elgar will be retiring following the test series against India.

South Africa will be going through a major change in their top-order batting after the upcoming two-match test series against India. The former South African test skipper, Dean Elgar announced his retirement from international cricket and the search for his replacement will be on ahead of their tour to New Zealand in February next year for the World Test Championship 2023-25 cycle.

Dean Elgar was replaced as captain of the South African test team by Temba Bavuma. Bavuma was previously serving as ODI captain of the Proteas team. South African head coach Shukri Conrad has now revealed the main reason behind Dean Elgar’s retirement and he stated that fewer test matches in the future has prompted the opener to decide on his future.

South African head coach Shukri Conrad also revealed that Dean Elgar held a discussion with him regarding the same and then he reached a decision. Shukri Conrad said, “It wasn’t because we just had four Test matches and Dean decided to retire. It was a conversation that Dean and I had. The fact that we don’t play a lot of Test matches is part of the reason that we arrived at the decision that we arrived at.” 

South African coach asks to increase the number of tests

Shukri Conrad has also asked to increase the number of test matches in the future to develop great players. He added that more opportunities in the red-ball game will bring a lot of great cricketers in front. He said, “Ideally, we would like to play more Test cricket because the more Test cricket we play, the more opportunity we’ve got to blood cricketers for the future. If we have fewer Tests, that means I’ve got very little opportunity.” 

India and South Africa will be commencing their two-match test battle at Supersport Park in Centurion on Boxing Day. India have a great memory of winning their last test match played at this ground in their tour of 2021-22. India thrashed South Africa by 113 runs in the series opener played here and then the hosts bounced back nicely at Bull Ring and Newlands in Cape Town.

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