The search for Test batters has intensified and Proteas Test captain, Dean Elgar, has called on domestic batters to put on big performances to be considered for selection for the Australia tour ✍️ @imongamagcwabe.

The Proteas head to Australia next month to defend their impressive record of winning three successive Test tours Down Under. This time around, the feeling from fans and the Test side will be different given the batting woes of the recent past in the longest format of the game. 

In England, the highest batting average from the Proteas camp was a mere 25.40 by Sarel Erwee and was followed by Keegan Petersen’s 24.40 in the three-match Test series. It was clear, the Test side had to go back to the drawing board and find solutions to the problems. 

Proteas Test captain Dean Elgar calls on batters in the country to put on big performances in order to put their names in the hat for selection for next month’s series. 

“Batters need to start turning up and start scoring big,” Elgar pleaded as domestic batters prepare for the 4-Day competition starting on Thursday, 10th November.

“Gone are the days where averaging 35 is going to get you in the Test squad. You need to average 50 and above. You need those numbers to get recognition and to be successful at the Test level.

“We really need guys making massive inroads and massive performances with regards to big numbers on the board. For me that’s always going to be the standard throughout South African cricket,” he added. 

The Proteas Test squad had a good 2021/22 season in that they finished in second place on the World Test Championship table after being at the top most of the season. But managing only two centuries in a cricket summer will never be enough regardless of how dominant your bowlers are in Test cricket.

The search for batters who have the skill set for Test cricket has intensified now that Keegan Petersen is out injured and will probably miss the tour.

The skill set needed includes the ability to bat time and convert starts into big scores which were skills that were missing last summer. 

“Batters around the country need to familiarize themselves with batting time. If I look at the last season of Test cricket, as a batting unit we didn’t fulfil that responsibility. We had a few good starts where we got the 30s and the 40s but we went out pretty early after that and that’s just poor,” said Elgar.

“The past few series that we’ve had as a batting unit, we have dropped the ball just purely out of our focus, our patience and discipline at the crease and maybe forgetting about what is the batter’s job in the longer format and that’s to bat time. 

“More times than not if you’re batting time and you’re occupying overs out of the game you’re going to be scoring runs naturally. Those are some of the areas I hope the batters around the country will be focusing on. We need those guys to put their hands up because we have a big series coming up against the Aussies,” he said. 

In defence of the Proteas Test batters, they lack experience and require sufficient time to acclimatize to the unforgiving Test match standards. But Elgar doesn’t have much time to play with, there’s a WTC to contend. If they don’t win in Australia they might not make it to the final of the WTC regardless of their result against the West Indies at home next year. 

Should the Proteas persist with the youngsters? Or should they perhaps look past them and consider the more experienced batters in the domestic circuit? 

“Experience is something that we have lacked over the last 18 months in our batting order. Potentially that experience will bring you consistency and that’s also something that we’ve lacked,” Elgar told Cricket Fanatics Magazine. 

“I’m pushing for the experienced heads not to be looked past. The experience is very crucial for us going forward. In saying that, there are talented young guys but they need to bare in mind that scoring a 50 or a 60 for your domestic side is not good enough. You need to put on hundreds and 150s.

“Having younger guys is important because they bring a different dynamic to the format but you need the experienced heads around to potentially control the ship a lot more and they play the big moments better purely because of the experiences that they’ve faced,” he added. 

The Proteas will leave on December 1st for the Test tour to Australia. The tour will include one warm-up match before the three-match series starts on December 17th.