Veteran South Africa opener Dean Elgar is all set to play his farewell Test match against India in Cape Town, starting on January 3.

The southpaw will be leading the Proteas side in his last Test match in the absence of Temba Bavuma, who has been ruled out due to fitness issues.

For Elgar, winning a Test series carries equal importance as the World Cup triumph and that’s how he wants to sign off.

Elgar played a key role in South Africa’s victory over India in the opening Test in Centurion and he now hopes for a 2-0 clean sweep with the Cape Town Test win.

“I only play the game to win,” Elgar said in a pre-match press conference. “I don’t care about stats. I care about wins. I care about series wins. That’s the greatest memories you can ever share with your team, everyone that has got an influential role in the background. Test series wins – you don’t top that. Maybe a World Cup win is up there. I have never had that opportunity but this is my World Cup. This is my arena where I want to win.”

Dean Elgar scored a magnificent 185 as South Africa annihilated India by an innings and 32 runs in the Boxing Day Test at SuperSport Park. He was deservingly adjudged Player-of-the-Match.

“I don’t think you get a bigger accolade or bigger credit than to be asked to captain. I did it in the past for a year-and-a-half or whatever it was and it has been the best learning experience for me as an individual – not just from a cricketing point of view but off-field stuff,” Elgar said.

“I give my 100% whether I am playing or captaining and I am going to have that mentality going into this game. For me, it’s about showing the right ways for the younger players and hopefully that catches on,” he added.

On the eve of the Cape Town Test, India skipper Rohit Sharma lauded Dean Elgar and acknowledged how the latter has scored lots of runs against his team.

The left-hander has played 14 Tests against India so far, amassing 996 runs at an average of 43.30 with two centuries.

“He’s (Elgar) been their mainstay for a number of years now. Gets a lot of runs against us for sure but again a quality player. Somebody who puts a big price on his wicket and doesn’t throw it away just like that. (You have) got to get him out,” Rohit said.

“It will be important if we can get him early and try to see what the other batters do with him not being there. We know how important he is to them. He likes to score big runs and bat long as well. We have got our plans. Hope it works out for us, it clearly didn’t work out in the last game but hopefully, it will (in the next match). Hopefully, we can make it (his last match) miserable (laughs),” he further stated.