Dean Elgar, after an excellent 2017, would open the batting with David Warner in an official Cricket Australia Test dream team.
He is one of five Saffas selected across the three formats by the authoritative website writers. Also in the Test team is Kagiso Rabada, while AB de Villiers features in both the ODI and T20I teams. Alongside him in the T20I team is Quinton de Kock, while Hashim Amla would bat with him in the T20s.
Cricket Australia says Elgar has been a rock at the top of the order this year, notching centuries in each of the four Test series South Africa has played. And while his 199 against a hapless Bangladesh at home in September was his high watermark of 2017, the left-hander would likely have been most proud of his fourth-innings 136 against England at The Oval in July.
As for Rabada, they say there can be few doubts over his standing as the most promising young quick on the planet and he could well claim to be the outright best fast bowler in the world given he outdid the likes of England’s Jimmy Anderson (55 wickets), Proteas teammate Morne Morkel (39 wickets) and Australia’s Josh Hazlewood (34 wickets) in 2017. Two 10-wicket match hauls, against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, were backed up 16 wickets in three Tests in England and he could have had more if it weren’t for his controversial suspension for the Trent Bridge Test. Rabada was a shining light for South Africa in the longest format.
De Kock lost out on the wicketkeeper’s position to Bangladesh’s Mushfiqur Rahim, despite leading the way in the dismissals front (50 in 12 matches), Mushfiqur’s return of 766 runs at 55 was the deciding factor.
Dream Test team: Dean Elgar (SA, 1,128 runs @ 53.71, HS: 199, 5×100, 4×50), David Warner (Australia, 997 runs @ 49.85, HS: 123, 4×100, 4×50), Chesteshwar Pujara (India, 1,059 runs @ 75.64, HS: 243, 5×100, 1×50), Steve Smith (Australia 1,305 runs @ 76.76, HS: 239, 6×100, 3×50), Virat Kohli (India, cap; 1 140 runs @ 67.05, HS: 202, 4×100, 5×50), Shakib al Hasan (Bangladesh, 665 runs @ 47.50, HS: 217, 2×100, 3×50), Mushfiqur Rahim (Bangladesh, wkt, 776 runs @ 54.71, HS: 159, 2×100, 3×50), Ravindra Jadeja (India, 54 wkts @ 23.05, BB: 6-63, : 328 runs @ 41.00, HS: 70* 4×50), Kagiso Rabada (SA, 57 wkts @ 20.28, BB: 6-55, 5w: 3, 10w: 2), Nathan Lyon (Australia, 63 wkts @ 23.55, BB: 8-50, 5w: 5, 10w: 1), Jimmy Anderson (England, 55 wkts @ 17.58, BB: 7-42, 5w: 4).
Dream ODI team: Rohit Sharma (India, 1 293 runs @ 72, SR: 99, HS: 208*); Quinton de Kock (SA, wkt; 956 runs @ 53, SR: 94, HS: 168*); Virat Kohli (India, capt, 1 460 runs @ 77, SR: 99 , HS: 131); Joe Root (England, 983 runs @ 70, SR: 92, HS: 133*); AB de Villiers(SA, 773 runs @ 59, SR: 117, HS: 176), Ben Stokes (England, 616 runs @ 61. SR: 107, HS: 102*; 14 wkts @ 39, econ: 6.48, BB: 3-43), Hardik Pandya (India, 557 runs @ 35, SR: 120, HS: 83; 31 wkts @ 36, econ: 5.57, BB: 3-40); Liam Plunkett (England, 36 wkts @ 22, econ: 5.62, BB: 5-52), Trent Boult (NZ, 31 wkts @ 24, econ: 5.27, BB: 7-34), Hasan Ali (Pakistan, 45 wkts @ 17, econ: 5.03, BB: 5-34), Rashid Khan (Afghanistan, 43 wkts @ 10, econ: 3.80, BB: 7-18
Dream T20I team: Brendon McCullum (NZ, 1 503 runs @ 29, SR 143, HS: 91; Chris Gayle(West Indies, 1 279 runs @ 37, SR 140, HS: 146*), Evin Lewis (West Indies, 1 124 runs @ 40, SR 165, HS: 125*), Hashim Amla (SA, 1 021 runs @ 48, SR 143, HS: 104*), AB de Villiers (SA, 779 runs @ 43, SR 158 , HS: 89*), Luke Ronchi (NZ, wk; 1 049 runs @ 33, SR 178, HS: 102), Shakib al Hasan (Bangladesh, 447 runs @ 20; 37 wkts @ at 18, econ: 6.9, BB: 5-16), Sunil Narine (West Indies, 62 wkts @ 24, econ: 6.2, BB: 3-10), Mohammad Amir(Pakistan, 34 wkts @ 21, econ: 6.8, BB: 4-13); Wahab Riaz (Pakistan, 41 wkts @ 18, econ: 6.7, BB: 3-15); Rashid Khan (Afghanistan, 78 wkts @ 14.88, econ: 5.6, BB: 5-3).
