"Bring it," is South Africa's message to Australia as they head Down Under in search of a fourth, successive away series win against the opponents.

"Mali is one of the coaches I asked our director (Nkwe) to try and get in to be interim. I'm glad I got that one right," Elgar said. "It's nice to have a DOC that has got cricket at heart and is backing his leadership that needs to be backed. Mali understands his role, which is going to be a supportive role, and he understands me as a cricketer, as a person and as a leader. Mali comes with quite a lot of experience. He has been around the block as long as I can remember."

Maketa worked as head coach for the Warriors franchise in South Africa's domestic circuit from 2015 to 2017, as Ottis Gibson's assistant for the national side between 2017 and 2019, and most recently as the South African A coach. He was also on the tour in England earlier this year and has worked with most of the squad members in some capacity over the last decade. He is one of the few consistent presences on the South African scene, which Elgar thinks they need more than anything as the Test team evolves.

"The environment has changed drastically (since 2019) but in a good way. We've tried to keep our core players so the consistency has always been pretty stable. We have evolved immensely and really played good cricket in the Test arena but we are still trying to push for the consistency factor which is going to be key going into a big series," he said.

"Growing up as a kid, you'd always wake up for these Boxing Day Test matches Down Under and you don't mind losing a few hours' sleep," Elgar said. "Now we've got 16 players who are going to experience it first-hand. It's a childhood dream of mine to experience this. Playing a Boxing Day and a New Year's Test in Australia - I don't think you get bigger than that."