Dean Elgar: ‘I didn’t come here to play second fiddle. I came here to win a series.’
Dean Elgar: ‘I didn’t come here to play second fiddle. I came here to win a series.’ When South Africa plays England in a three-match Test series, Dean Elgar is motivated to “put a bit more respect into the badge.” England is seen to be a team that can be defeated.
The Proteas have won three of their most recent four series in the longest format and drawn one of them. This includes a triumph over India by a score of 2-1.
In addition to their comfortable position atop the table for the World Test Championship, South Africa is currently ranked third in the standings as they prepare for their first match of the tournament, which will take place against Ben Stokes’ team at Lord’s Stadium on Wednesday.
With Stokes at the helm as captain and Brendon McCullum at the helm as head coach, England has gotten off to a fantastic start to the new era, sweeping New Zealand 3-0 and overcoming India in a rescheduled test to tie the series 2-2.
However, the away team’s captain, Elgar, is putting his faith in the tourists to keep up their winning streak and drag England back down to earth.
Batter
The first batter to step up to the plate declared, “I don’t play to lose. I loathe defeat with all of my beings. And if we play a brand of [cricket] that is mediocre, or if we are not putting our best foot forward, and if we do not have results going our way, then that impacts me quite a bit.
This is going to be a monumental series for all of us. I believe that we have seventeen players, and it is extremely important for all seventeen of us to go out there and play a style of cricket that is appealing to South Africans and ultimately provides us with the best opportunity to win in England. Because we have experienced it ourselves in the past, we are aware that it is possible.
Elgar has stated that South Africa would not over the line with the verbals, but he does anticipate that words will be exchanged in the middle.
“When things get heated, there’s always something that comes out,” he added. “There’s always something that comes out.” To put it another way, let’s say that. I simply want to play three Test matches that are really, very difficult, and then I want to go out there and put the badge on the line, and I want to put a little more respect into the badge.
Statements
He continued by saying, “We played against the greatest in the world the year before [India, who were at the top of the rankings at the time], and I think we did things that we didn’t exactly expect to do at that time.”
“So the benchmark that we’ve set and the bar that we’ve raised since last year have both happened very naturally just because of us doing good things on the field again,” he said. “We’ve set the standard pretty high.”
“There is no question that this is going to be a challenging series. I have a lot of respect for the fact that they are such a proud cricketing nation. On the other hand, I am aware that they can be defeated. I didn’t come all the way here to be the supporting actor. I wanted to come here in order to win a series.”