Dean Elgar sets his sights on a proud Test record

The opening batsman of South Africa Dean Elgar has a great opportunity to finish the stellar year in Tests as the highest run-getter in the format. The Proteas are all set to lock horns with Zimbabwe in a historic four-day Boxing Day Test match under lights later this month. Cheteshwar Pujara from India is currently leading the charts in whites and recently surpassed Elgar in the Test series against Sri Lanka.

The left-hander is only 44 runs away from taking over Pujara and end the year on high. He has had an excellent year with the bat and has so far amassed 1097 in 20 innings at an amazing average of 54.85. He has also smashed five centuries and four fifties in red-ball cricket. He would love to gear himself up for the all-important series against India which will commence in January next year.

Four more cricketers in ‘1000-club’

Dean Elgar is not the only cricketer to feature in the list as the likes of Virat Kohli, Pujara, Dimuth Karunaratne and Dinesh Chandimal have also crossed the 1000-run barrier in Tests. The new wall of India, Pujara, has scored 1140 currently and is not slated to play the format anymore this year. Even the Indian skipper, who has smashed records recently, has amassed 1059 runs and will now feature in the series against Proteas in whites next year.

Elgar would be proud of his record already this year as he scored runs all along against every opponent he faced. He also captained South Africa during the first Test at Lord’s against England for the first time in his career. If he manages to score 44 more runs in his final outing in 2017, Elgar will be the first Protea batsman after Graeme Smith to top the charts who had scored a mammoth 1656 runs at an average of 72 way back in 2008.