Bangladesh tour of South Africa: Dean Elgar hopes South African players choose Test series over IPL

When the national team hosts Bangladesh for a Test and ODI series in the first half of April, Cricket South Africa (CSA) has already indicated that the players are free to participate in the IPL. If the players chose to depart for India, the national squad would be severely reduced, which will be a major setback for their hopes of making rapid progress in the World Test Championship.

Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Marco Jansen, and Anrich Nortje are among the Test bowlers with IPL contracts, and the tournament, which runs from March 26 to May 29, will clash with Tests scheduled for March 30 to April 12 at St George's Park and Kingsmead. Dean Elgar, the Test captain, wants to have all of his key players available, but says it will also be a good chance for him to gauge where the players' allegiance lie.

"Just this morning I got off a call with the respective personnel at CSA to try and give us a guideline as to whether the players will be available or not. The outcome of that meeting is that the players need to give CSA an indication whether they're keen to go to the IPL or if they're keen to play for the Test side," Elgar made a statement to an online press conference on Friday. 

"It's a tough one leaving that up to the players, but this is how we'll see where their loyalty lies. They mustn't forget that Test and one-day cricket got them into the IPL, not the other way around.”

"That's all I can give you now. I wish I had more, just for my own personal sanity. So I can prepare, knowing that most of my bowlers are potentially not going to be there if they choose to go the IPL route. Hopefully by next week that will be clearer for us."