South Africa captain Dean Elgar believes his side hold the edge in the upcoming three Tests against India by virtue of playing at home.

“I think it’s pretty even-stevens. Us playing at home, obviously, gives us a little bit of an upper hand,” Elgar said on Friday. “They are ranked No. 1 in the world; we can’t ignore that.

“You have to 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 the upper hand going into the series.”

Elgar admitted that India’s attack posed the home team the most potent challenge.

“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.”