Elgar: 'Playing in our backyard gives us the upper hand'

“Their strength at the moment lies in their bowling. We are extremely aware of that as well”

“I think it’s pretty even-stevens. Us playing at home, obviously, gives us a little bit of an upper hand,” Elgar said two days out from the Boxing Day Test in Centurion. “They are ranked No. 1 in the world; we can’t not look at that. That’s something they have been for quite some time, in my opinion – just my being a cricket watcher and a cricket fan.

“You can’t not give them the credit for what they have done over the last while. So, I am not going to sit here and say they are not the best side in the world because there’s a ranking system for a reason. But the mere fact that we’re playing in our backyard gives us still the upper hand going into the series.”

“Their strength at the moment lies in their bowling,” Elgar said. “We are extremely aware of that as well. They’ve had a lot of successes as a bowling unit. They’ve got a lot of older spearhead bowlers that lead the attack and have got a good back-up set of bowlers as well.

“And being in South Africa, I’m pretty sure their bowling attack will exploit the conditions reasonably well. Just knowing that we have our seamers and we’ve got a little bit of pace and bounce and the wickets may be do a little bit more in South Africa than it does anywhere else around the world.”

“It (India having success in Australia and England) is something we’re obviously wary of. They’ve improved a lot with regards to their travelling record,” Elgar said, “I know Virat Kohli has emphasised on that kind of point – that they wanted to improve their record on the road. [We are] Extremely mindful of that; they have set themselves that standard. And I’m sure they’re going to try and fulfill it within this series.

“And as much as I have the power of being the leader of this team, I’m going to try and prevent them from fulfilling that role or that dream of theirs. That makes an exciting and challenging series coming up for both teams. We know they’re going to come out firing; we’re extremely mindful of that as well. I’m pretty sure they know we’re also going to come out firing. Either way it’s going to be an extremely exciting Test series.”