Dean Elgar: ‘England’s style can go two ways. It can go south quickly’

“I’ve got absolutely no interest in the style that they’ve played.” Dean Elgar, South Africa’s bullish Test captain, will not be drawn on the hype surrounding England’s swashbuckling batting this summer. “I think it can go one of two ways for them and it can go south very quickly. [Talking about it] is a waste of energy. Their own coach doesn’t even like the slogan they’ve come up with. I’d like to see them do it against our seamers.”

The Proteas captain and long-serving opener – speaking before his team’s warm-up match against the England Lions ended in a shocking innings defeat – has been happy to shoulder arms to the Bazball chatter that has dominated the discourse ever since Ben Stokes teamed up with Brendon McCullum.

He is now surely taking the threat England’s primary batters pose more seriously, after a group of reserves amassed 672 at 5.74 runs an over, albeit against a South Africa XI lacking the pace trio Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje and Lungisani Ngidi, plus the world-class spin of Simon Harmer.

As the first of three Tests starts at Lord’s on Wednesday, he will have to find a way of dousing the promised pyrotechnics. Not that he will hide from the challenge.

Elgar is a cricketer from a previous age. A red-ball specialist who has built a 10-year career with little more than a nudge off his hips and an inelegant drive, he shuns celebrity and avoids social media. “I’ve got better things to do than tweet,” he says.

Raised by a disciplinarian father in the mining town of Welkom in the heart of the country, he favours frugality over flamboyance, both with his words and his approach to his craft.

“People can say what they want, trust me, I don’t really give a shit,” he says when asked how he felt about the words