South Africa skipper Dean Elgar was not pleased with the batting performance of his team in the just-concluded three-match Test series against England. Despite winning the first Test at Lord's by an innings margin, the visitors lost the series by a score of 2-1.
In the first Test, South Africa managed to score 326 runs in their only innings but they were unable to reach more than 200 runs in their subsequent four innings. Elgar admitted his inexperienced middle order was letting the team down.
He further rued the lack of experience of his players in the traditional format.
“I always bank on experience and we don’t have that at test level,” Elgar told reporters. “The next best thing is who do we have with experience in first-class cricket back home? Is that the right solution, we don’t know yet.
“We have a few months before our next series (in Australia starting on Dec. 17) but we only have a handful of four-day games before then,” he added.
The 35-year-old claimed that the Proteas' situation is not being helped by the number of senior players announcing their retirement in quick succession.
“The new players have had to learn in the toughest format with not a lot of experience around them, which is something we were always aware of because of the amount of guys we had retire back-to-back,” Elgar said.
“It is about getting runs, that’s our currency as batsmen. It’s tough when the guys are not getting numbers on the board for you. Sooner or later you have to look elsewhere,” he further stated.
Elgar declined to comment on the ‘Bazball’ approach but said that the Ben Stokes-led team displayed controlled aggression throughout the series.
“I’m not speaking about that word,” he said. “I didn’t think they played ultra-aggressive cricket, just a really good tempo, which is something you can manage and control when you are ahead in the game. I didn’t see the ‘B-word’ at all, I just thought they controlled it well.”
(REUTERS INPUTS)
