Proteas Test captain Dean Elgar is pleased with strides his team has made after finishing the home summer with a series clean sweep against Bangladesh at St Georges Park.
The hosts completed a comprehensive 332-run victory over Bangladesh in the second Test on Monday that gave the Proteas a 2-0 series win.
Elgar’s charges have won five out of seven Tests this summer, and included a series win at home against India and a 1-1 draw away to World Test Championship (WTC) holders New Zealand.
The Proteas now lie second on the current WTC table, with the top two making the final at end of the cycle, and Elgar was happy with the results, not just in the longest format, as they have won 13 out of 19 matches across all formats in the 2021-22 season.
“We’ve had an extremely successful summer, not just as a Test side but as a cricketing nation,” Elgar said. “I think we are on the right path, doing things in the correct way.
“I am extremely proud of the Test summer we’ve had and the depth we’ve shown with regards to our selection pool.
“I am extremely proud of the group of players that we fielded.”
While the home season was an overall success, Elgar did admit that the batting struggles in the Test arena need to be rectified ahead of three Tests in England in August and September.
No batter scored a Test century a home for the Proteas this season while a total of 400 was only reached once in the final Test against Bangladesh.
Elgar continued: “We need to notch up a few more hundreds. Our senior batters, when we get into good positions, we need to get those three-figure marks because we know how much pressure that puts on the opposition.
“We haven’t nailed down those hundreds. That’s the one area of focus we are extremely aware of and we are working bloody hard to get those hundreds. Maybe it’s a case of stop trying too hard and focus on the moment.”
