Much to the relief of South African cricket‚ gritty test opener Dean Elgar will be rejoining English county side Somerset‚ but not as a Kolpak player.

Elgar (29) represented the side in 2013 when he was on the fringes of the test squad but is understood to have turned down a Kolpak contract to be the club's overseas professional.

At the time he joined the club as cover for the now-disgraced former Proteas opener and match-fixer Alviro Petersen.

He played in three first-class matches and four List A games at the time

This bodes well for Cricket South Africa‚ who would have required Elgar's services as an opener for the two-and-a-half month tour of England which starts towards the end of May.

The club confirmed on its website that Elgar will be joining the first division county club from April and will be released by the time South Africa play the first of their four tests against England on July 6.

However‚ according to espncricinfo.com‚ the club may be resigned to losing Elgar in May ahead of a planned national team training camp.

That means Elgar could be unavailable for a couple of matches.

Former Titans coach and current Somerset director of cricket Matthew Maynard said Elgar will add value to a side that narrowly missed out on its maiden county championship pennant last season.

They were denied by a last day heist by Middlesex‚ who beat defending division one champions Yorkshire at Lord's to pip Somerset to the post.

Elgar is seen as a like-for-like replacement  for nuggety former Australian test opener Chris Rogers‚ who retired at the end of last season.

“He has all the characteristics you want in a player‚" Maynard told the club's website.

"He's a fighter‚ he battles hard and he brings the sort of grit and determination the members and the supporters will appreciate.

"He's a 100 percent man and the kind of person who will buy into the values of the club.” - TMG Digital