Ken Borland

Despite the poor middle-order batting performance in the first Test, Proteas captain Dean Elgar confirmed on Wednesday that there will be no change to their top-six for the second Test against England, which starts at Old Trafford on Thursday.

At Lord’s last week, the top-three did a fine job laying a solid platform that took the Proteas to 160/2. But Aiden Markram (16), Rassie van der Dussen (19) and Kyle Verreynne (11) all missed out as they slipped to 210/6, allowing England back into the game.

It was thanks to the lower-order that South Africa had a lead of 161, enough to win by an innings.

Markram, who has not passed 50 in 13 Test innings, and Van der Dussen, no fifty in his last 11 innings, are under particular pressure for their places, but Elgar said they are safe for Old Trafford.

“We do have extra resources, but when the team is getting results then it becomes extremely important to back the players,” Elgar said. “These are proper batsmen and they are here for a reason.

“Hopefully they get everything right in this Test, and if we start firing in the middle-order then we will be even more difficult to beat. So I don’t see any change there.

“Consistency is key in Test cricket, even in selection. We need to back the horses we’ve been backing for some time. So we have selected the same 12 as Lord’s – that’s the XI there plus Simon Harmer.”

It is the sheer potency of the Proteas attack that will pose the biggest threat to England, and Elgar said he is hoping that his bowlers will be even better in Manchester.

“I reckon our bowlers can get much better. They had a brilliant game at Lord’s, the pitch assisted them so that needs to be taken into account, but they put the ball in the right area.

“They are extremely hungry for success, the competition between them is great to see and they display some of the most professional behaviour I’ve seen.

“They know the past is the past, the first Test is done and they need to start again and bring the intensity and heat again.

“If there is extra pace and bounce then I’m sure our fast bowlers will get it out of the pitch. We’ve got the right resources with two world-class spinners in our armoury and four fast bowlers,” Elgar said.

While the Proteas have become a tight-knit family enjoying each other’s success, Elgar is ensuring he still cracks the whip when necessary to push the team to further heights, like securing the series win.

“We want to create a sense of no-one taking their foot off the gas. We’re not going to change the way we play and we won’t be intimidated by whatever changes England make.

“This is a fresh squad with a lot of hunger, whenever we get into a comfortable position then that’s a bit of a red flag. It’s up to me and the coach to realign the team after every good result,” Elgar said.

Following the euphoria of their innings win at Lord’s, the Proteas travelled to Manchester on Monday to prepare for the second Test, starting at Old Trafford on Thursday, and captain Dean Elgar says “We’ve enjoyed the celebrations but I’ll definitely not allow anyone to get into a comfort zone”.

“We’ll be leaving no stone unturned in our preparations,” Elgar said. “There is still room for improvement and my job is to still be looking for the negatives even when things are going well.

“We have a seriously good coaching staff who don’t get enough credit. I’m a massive fan of who Mark Boucher has added to the management and they do a lot of the behind-the-scenes homework.

“I’d be an idiot not to use that information. This is definitely not the Dean Elgar Show, there are a lot of great cricket brains in the backroom staff,” Elgar said.

Old Trafford has not treated South African cricket teams with much kindness over the years, with the tourists only managing to beat England once in nine Tests there, although they have won three of their five ODIs in the stadium next to the famous football ground.

The solitary Test win came in 1955 when South Africa won by three wickets, with Jackie McGlew, Johnny Waite and Paul Winslow all scoring first-innings centuries and fast bowler Peter Heine taking five second-innings wickets.

The Proteas’ most recent Test in Manchester ended in a 177-run defeat in 2017 as Moeen Ali dominated the second innings with bat and ball and Jimmy Anderson took seven wickets in the match.

But Elgar and his team are used to shrugging off difficulties. They were besieged by the English media about ‘Bazball’, and Elgar’s comment that “We are firmly committed to playing our own game. What England have been doing this summer does not influence my thoughts,” will hopefully be the end of that, especially given how dominant the Proteas were at Lord’s.

Even the administrators seemingly pulling the plug on the tremendous growth of this Test side by limiting their opportunities to play the longest format over the next five years could not tempt Elgar into any sort of rash response.

“I just know that we have 28 Tests in five years. It’s a sad thing, we could be playing more, but I don’t want to say more because it will get me into trouble,” Elgar said.

For Proteas captain Dean Elgar, Friday’s thumping innings win over England in the first Test at Lord’s was maybe not the culmination but the reward for the hard work and progress made by the South African Test team over the last year or so.

The Proteas, with a fired-up Anrich Nortje leading the way with three wickets in two overs, bundled England out for just 149 in 37.4 overs to complete a crushing victory 20 minutes before tea on the third day, even though two-thirds of the opening day were lost to rain.

When Elgar was appointed Test captain in March 2021, the team was a rather rudderless one desperate for a turnaround. Since beating the West Indies 2-0 in the Caribbean, the opening batsman has led South Africa to top spot on the World Test Championship table with series wins over the likes of India and a drawn series against the defending champions in New Zealand.

“I didn’t wake up this morning thinking that I’d be in a press conference before 5 o’clock, so it was a special performance,” Elgar said. “It’s pretty big to do this on a sold-out Friday at Lord’s.

“It’s a good reflection of what we’ve done in the last year. I encourage the team to play every Test like it’s their last and we’ve played bloody good cricket when we’ve got it right, which is why we are number one.

“Everything has been a work in progress since I took over, but I’ve always felt that the basic core of the team had the fundamentals to be a world-leading Test side.

“We’ve obviously grown and we care for each other, we put the individual aside and focus on the team. Everything we’ve been through over the last year has happened for a reason,” Elgar said.

The straight-talking skipper acknowledged that his potent bowling attack certainly made his life easier.

“My margin for error is a lot bigger with four fast bowlers and numbers three and four are actually the fastest of them. But you still need sound game-plans, they need to know their roles and be able to adapt to different situations.

“Like on Day One, it was overcast but then the sun came out, but it was still the best bowling conditions and KG Rabada really brought it. He’s an absolute machine and he stuck his hand up.

“And then we have Keshav Maharaj, who is world-class, an absolute gun and brilliant to have in the team. But the attack is by no means the end product and I need them to want to achieve more.

“Then they could become a really special bowling attack. We’ve laid a pretty true, solid foundation for the team, nothing unrealistic, it’s all achievable. I definitely won’t allow us to go into a comfort zone,” Elgar said.

Like an older brother showing his younger siblings the ropes, Proteas captain Dean Elgar says he knows what it feels like to be the No.1 Test side in the world and he wants the rest of his team to experience the same joy.

South Africa are currently leading the ICC World Test Championship with five wins from seven matches, but in terms of the Test rankings they are third behind Australia and India. England are 10 points behind them in fourth and are languishing in seventh in the Championship, out of the running for the final.

But regardless of that, beating England in a Test series in England is one of the toughest things to do and Elgar, a veteran of 76 Tests,  knows if they are to be acknowledged as the best side in the longest format then they need to stand up and be counted when the first Test starts at Lord’s on Wednesday.

“I didn’t take the job as captain thinking about just being a mid-table team,” Elgar said on Tuesday. “It was always my goal for us to play our best cricket.

“I’ve been part of a No.1-ranked side twice and I know how great a feeling it is and how much work it takes and what a journey it is.

“I want the younger guys to experience that and I want to experience it again as well before my next chapter. It’s a massive goal of mine, the biggest, and I wouldn’t be doing this job if I didn’t think we were capable of being number one.

“I think we’ve created a lot more confidence over the last 15 months and it has rubbed off on my own game as well. I’m not dissing the opposition, but purely from the South African point of view, we tick all the boxes,” Elgar said.

While rain meant Kagiso Rabada would have to bowl in the indoor nets at Lord’s if he needed to top-up after his ankle injury, there will be at least four changes in the starting XI compared to the team that thrashed Bangladesh in Gqeberha in South Africa’s previous Test, in April.

The injured duo of Temba Bavuma and Duanne Olivier are both back in South Africa, while Wiaan Mulder and Lizaad Williams are not in the touring squad.

Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje and Marco Jansen are all back in the squad, but whether there is enough in the conditions to warrant playing Simon Harmer as a second spinner will determine whether the pace quartet return like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Who comes in for Bavuma is the big question.

“We’ve lost Temba’s experience factor in the middle-order and I would be more inclined to go for experience,” Elgar said, suggesting Rassie van der Dussen or Aiden Markram are the frontrunners to bat No.4.

Play starts at 12pm SA time.