Stokes v Elgar the pinnacle of the England-Proteas Test series

England and South Africa have resumed a longstanding Test cricket rivalry. Several World Test Championship points are up for grabs as Ben Stokes and Dean Elgar’s men contest three instalments of the longest format of the international game.

For Stokes, it’s another chance to prove his worth as a leader after taking over from former England captain Joe Root earlier this year. Stokes means business on the ultimate stage – and showed as much when he recently retired from ODI cricket to concentrate on prolonging his Test career.

Stokes has put in some sterling performances in red-ball cricket over the years. He’ll be among the contenders for the player of the series accolade among the Sportland markets for this tour. Working under new head coach Brendon McCullum will, again, be an interesting challenge for Stokes. McCullum, like Stokes, was an aggressive cricketer before retiring from his playing days and moving into coaching.

Stokes can’t afford to let his newfound role as captain negatively affect his primary roles with the bat and ball. He needs to remain the lead all-rounder in the XI for England to succeed against the Proteas. He will no doubt look to manage the bowlers’ workloads by putting in a few spells himself. James Anderson, Stuart Broad and the other frontline bowlers can’t shoulder all the responsibility – and Stokes is good at punctuating their contributions with his own.

It’s with the bat, though, that he’ll likely offer the most value. And it’s this head-to-head battle with Elgar that should lift plenty of interest. Elgar, of course, is an opening batsman rather than a middle-order man like Stokes. He is also trying to make his mark as one of the best Test captains in world cricket today – and has to lead by example with the bat. With Quinton de Kock no longer playing Test cricket and a few young guns – such as Kyle Verreynne and Keegan Petersen – in the ranks, Elgar has a lot riding on his leadership and production of significant innings at the top of the order.

Elgar doesn’t have the likes of Anderson and Broad to turn to. He has Kagiso Rabada at his disposal, though the Proteas pace ace has been somewhat of a fitness doubt of late and might struggle to get through the series altogether. Spinners Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer could have big roles to play. Harmer has plenty of experience on United Kingdom pitches, having bowled on many of them across several seasons with Essex in the County Championship.

Lord’s, Old Trafford and The Oval will host this three-Test series. Root, after giving up the captaincy, could be one of the biggest crowd-pullers. He is arguably the best Test batsman right now and increasingly being tipped to perhaps, one day, surpass India’s Sachin Tendulkar as highest run-scorer in Test match cricket, ever. Rabada and company will do well to get him out as early as possible, especially if he has arrived at the crease relatively prematurely because England’s opening batsmen have failed to fire again.