LONDON (Reuters) - South Africa are backing Dean Elgar to bring a ‘gusty attitude’ with him when he stands in as captain for the first test against England, starting at Lords on Thursday.
"Dean is an aggressive type of personality and he will play an aggressive brand of cricket. He is an experienced player in the test side and has had good success as a test opener. That is a tough job in this game," coach Russell Domingo told a news conference on Monday.
"He is a gutsy player. He epitomises South African cricket to the tee. I’m excited about working with him for the next couple of days as captain."
Elgar, who becomes the 12th player to captain South Africa since their readmission to international cricket 25 years ago, stands in for Faf du Plessis, who misses the first test to be with his wife Imari after the birth of their first child.
"He is going to try and take over and run with a lot of what Faf has instilled in the side, but be his own man," added Domingo.
"I’m excited to see what he brings. It’s a big plus for us that we can have another prospective captain in the group ...
"We want to win, that is the bottom line. We set ourselves certain goals a year ago that we want to achieve in test cricket and we are determined to tick those boxes."
Team manager Mohammed Moosajee said earlier that du Plessis had remained with his wife because the birth had been a difficult one, but that he was likely to fly to Britain later in the week.