Former South African skipper Dean Elgar is all set to pull curtains on his international career

Former South Africa`s skipper Dean Elgar (Pic: AFP)

Former South Africa skipper Deal Elgar is set to pull the curtains on his international career after the two-match Test series against India.

International Cricket Council on Friday revealed that South Africa's Cricket Board announced the retirement of Dean Elgar against India. His career has spanned over 12 years, and the 36-year-old will finish with 86 Test matches to his name.

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"Playing the game of cricket has always been a dream of mine but having the opportunity to represent your country is the ultimate!" Elgar said in his statement as quoted from ICC.

"Having had the privilege to do it for 12 years internationally is simply beyond my wildest dreams. It has been an incredible journey that I have been fortunate enough to have," Elgar said.

"As they say, 'all good things come to an end', and the Indian home series will be my last, as I have made the decision to retire from our beautiful game. A game that has given me so much. The Cape Town Test will be my last. My favourite stadium in the world. A place I scored my first Test run against New Zealand and hopefully my last too," Elgar added.

In 84 Tests, Elgar scored 5,146 runs and is the eighth-highest Proteas' run scorer in the longest format of the game. He is just 352 runs shy from securing seventh position on the list. Currently, Mark Boucher is the seventh position holder. During the two clashes against India, the left-hander had the opportunity to move past him.

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His decision means that he will be unavailable for the Protea's two-match Test series in New Zealand. They will be forced to make a couple of changes because most of the frontline players will be involved in the SA20 league.

Back in 2012, Elgar made his debut in Perth on South Africa's tour of Australia, a time when the Proteas were ranked No. 1 in the world.

He scored a century in his third match and went on to score a total of 13 tons, against all Test opposition other than Pakistan and Zimbabwe.

His favourite opponent was Sri Lanka, he scored a match-winning hundred in Galle in 2014, which was followed by two more tons in 2017 and 2021.

Elgar assumed the captaincy role when Faf du Plessis was on paternity leave, for the first Test of South Africa's 2017 tour of England and again for two Tests against Pakistan in 2019.

Elgar was named permanent captain of the Test side in 2021. He led South Africa to famous series wins in the West Indies and against India at home, under his leadership he drew a series against New Zealand in 2022. The favourable results saw them top the World Test Championship (WTC) table at that time.

(With ANI Inputs)