Watson heaps praise on Proteas skipper Dean Elgar

Dean Elgar has been nothing short of outstanding since he became South Africa's full time test skipper

With only 66 runs more to go to cross the 5k mark in the longest format, Dean Elgar will be looking to accomplish the same in the third Test match against England at the Oval. He'll also be hoping to lead his side to victory to clinch the top spot in the ICC World Test Championship points table. 

The 35 year old southpaw has found himself an admirer in former Australian all-rounder Shane Watson who seems to be full of high praise for Elgar's approach to test cricket and his batting in the longest format. Watson liked the fact that how Elgar only focusses on test cricket and that being a one format player would help him get better and pile on the runs in whites for some more time to come. 

“He’s a tough, gritty batsman, knows his game inside-out, knows how to be really effective, and 5,000 runs – there’s not a lot of people in the history of Test cricket who have not been able to do that.”

“Only playing Test cricket, there’s enough downtime to be able to stay fresh and keep that freshness for the next four-five years. I’m sure he’ll be making the most of that,” said Watson.

“He certainly can play for another four, five years I think, with his performances still being very high, and he’s a great leader around the group as you can see with his captaincy as well. He’s still got a fair way to go, I believe.

Elgar has been the backbone of SA's batting 

Since the start of 2017, Elgar has made 3408 runs as the only South Africa opener to average better than 40 (40.57). Elgar has batted with seven opening partners in the same period, with Aiden Markram (36.53) and newcomer Sarel Erwee (31.00) the only other players at the top to better 30.

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