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South Africa captain Dean Elgar has underlined home advantage as the decisive factor as the two teams go toe-to-toe in a three-Test match series from Sunday (December 26). The two teams will meet for the 40th time in Test match cricket, but only three victories on African soil has put Virat Kohli’ men in an unwanted territory in terms of numbers. Elgar is determined to get the better of Kohli’s men knowing India don’t have a good track record against the Proteas in their land.
"I think it's pretty even-stevens. Us playing at home, obviously, gives us a little bit of an upper hand,"Dean said.
“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,” he added.
"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 still gives us the upper hand going into the series,” the 34-year old said.
"Their strength at the moment lies in their bowling. We are extremely aware of that as well. They've had a lot of success 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," Elgar added.
Although India haven’t won a Test series on African soil, the team has tasted success overseas. Team India has won Test series in Australia (twice), lead England 2-1 (still one match to be played), but will have to be at their formidable best to clinch success against the Proteas. In 20 Test matches, the hosts have come out on top a staggering 10 times with seven ending in draws.
