The left-handed batsman played for his country for more than eleven years, notching 14 centuries and 23 fifties and accumulating 5,347 runs in 86 Test matches. He debuted in November 2012 in Australia at The Waca, where he was dismissed for a pair of ducks.
Elgar demonstrated his scoring ability across formats, amassing 2,594 runs in 104 T20 games and a substantial 18,981 runs in 279 first-class fixtures.
He reached his first Test century in January 2013 against New Zealand, scoring an unbeaten 103, and added another hundred the next year in Galle as South Africa secured a win over Sri Lanka.
He completed three centuries with a not-out innings, highlighted by a 141 not out against Australia in Cape Town in 2018, guiding South Africa to a 322-run victory. Notably, he is the only Test batsman to have carried his bat in two separate innings within the same calendar year, achieving the feat against India two months earlier.
He acted as interim captain during South Africa’s early-2019 Pakistan series after Faf du Plessis was penalised for a slow over rate, and was later appointed full-time Test captain following Quinton de Kock’s resignation.
While captain, he could not stop England from mounting a comeback to win the 2022 three-match series 2-1, yet he notched 185 against India in 2023, helping South Africa secure a seven-wicket win that levelled the two-match series.
He announced his retirement from international cricket in January 2024, having previously played for Surrey in two spells, and subsequently signed a three-year contract with Essex.
