Dean Elgar – Dean Elgar was one of the consistent players for South Africa in the year. He saw his openers, Stephen Cook and Heino Kuhn losing their place due to lack of form but Elgar always stood there for the side while opening the innings and scored a total of 1097 runs in the year at 54.85.
He scored five centuries – joint most by a batsman (till Perth Ashes Test) – and four half-centuries in the year. He also made his Test captaincy debut in the year when skipper Faf du Plessis opted out of first England Test due to personal reasons.