Over a 12-year career representing his country, Dean Elgar carved out a stellar reputation as one of the world’s best batters, able to wear down a new ball and a bowling attack before cashing in.
He scored more than 5,000 Test runs in a South African shirt across 86 matches since his debut in 2012 and, following his decision to step back from the international game, he is set to begin a new chapter in Chelmsford.
This is a look over the cricketing journey of Essex’s newest addition, by the numbers.
Carrying his bat three times
Elgar is renowned across the world as a gritty, solid opener who prizes his wicket, borne out by the fact he is one of only two men in Test history to remain not out throughout an entire innings on three separate occasions.
In March 2018, he matched former West Indies captain Desmond Haynes by ending South Africa’s first innings against Australia in Cape Town unbeaten on 141 – a game tarred by the visitors’ ball-tampering scandal.
The 36-year-old’s previous marathon effort of resistance had come only two months earlier, as he made 86 not out in the Johannesburg Test against India, having first achieved the feat in Durban against England in 2015.
His repeated successes are further underlined by the fact that Gary Kirsten is the only other South African to carry his bat post-readmission, and that all other South Africans combined have accomplished it only five times.
A Test top score of 199
In September 2017, Elgar crushed the Bangladesh attack in the first Test in Potchefstroom with a sparkling knock that saw South Africa pile up 496-3 declared in their first innings.
He may have just missed out on a double century, but a 388-ball stay at the crease, that included 15 fours and three sixes, underlined his class.
Elgar shared in two monstrous stands throughout his innings, first putting on an opening stand of 196 with Aiden Markram, before adding 215 for the second wicket with Hashim Amla.
His efforts helped South Africa secure a crushing 333-run victory, and they went on not just to whitewash the two-match Test series, but also to win all three ODIs and two T20Is on the white ball leg of the tour too.
Sixth-highest South African century-maker
That huge knock against Bangladesh was one of 14 hundreds that Elgar amassed while playing for his country, a number that puts him joint-sixth in the South African rankings.
He is level with Daryll Cullinan and Herschelle Gibbs, and is joined in the top ten by such legends as Hashim Amla, Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis, and AB de Villiers.
Elgar’s first century, an unbeaten 103, came in January 2013 against New Zealand, and he went on to hit hundreds against eight of the other 11 Test playing nations.
Kallis’s record of 45 tons, 17 clear of Amla in second, will stand for a long time yet, but the now-retired Elgar retains a deserved spot among those South African greats.
Just three balls to get an ODI wicket
Although most of Elgar’s international achievements came in the Test arena, he still represented South Africa in eight One Day Internationals, and proved himself a handy bowler in the format too.
In August 2012, bowling left-arm spin against England in Southampton in just his second appearance in the format, he picked up the wicket of Craig Kieswetter with his third delivery, caught by Graeme Smith in the slips.
Elgar went on to finish with figures of 1/11 from three overs as South Africa won the game by 80 runs thanks to Hashim Amla’s 150.
He would continue bowling short spells throughout the rest of the series, and picked up his second and final scalp in the fourth ODI at Lord’s, pinning Jonathan Trott lbw for 48.
Five years as the world’s most prolific opener
Elgar was given the chance to make the opening spot his own in 2014 following the retirement of Graeme Smith, and he did so with aplomb, being the leading Test run-scorer among openers between 2016 and 2021.
During that time period, he hit over 3,000 of his Test runs at an average of 41, defying a ball-tampering scandal by Australia and a dustbowl in Visakhapatnam where he countered Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
He defied an England push for victory at the Oval in 2017 with a typically defensive 136, and continued to show his dedication by filling in for Faf du Plessis as captain on separate occasions in 2017 and 2019.
Elgar would end his international career having established himself both as the legendary Smith’s successor and also as one of South Africa’s most prolific openers in his own right.
