Heavy rain dominated the build-up to South Africa’s first Test in six months but it abated in time for the start of the match in Chittagong.
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Emboldened by their first ever ODI series victory over South Africa, Bangladesh now want to impress in the longer version of cricket.
They have played 91 tests, winning just seven – all against Zimbabwe and a second-string West Indies side in 2009. Proteas assistant coach Adrian Birrell, one of the drivers of team culture, said humility and compassion – keys traits of the late leader – were the founding qualities by which the Proteas lived.
Earlier this year, our boys dared us to dream when they rocked up to the house of Kieron Adams, a 12-year-old lad from Cape Town, going on to play a game of cricket with him and the neighbours. South African skipper Hashim Amla will hope that South Africa can overcome their ODI loss to emerge triumphant in the Tests. “To achieve anything is a big challenge, ” Mushfiqur said.
“We have eight new players here which is always great; there is new energy, new ideas and some experience with guys like Dale (Steyn) joining the side”. We won the last four ODI series at home. Test cricket is where he thrives and he will need to lead from the front to help the new players settle in. They had mixed success in the limited overs portion of their tour, winning the T20 series 2-0 but losing the One Day Internationals 2-1 to the home team. AB de Villiers will not be present, as he is away on paternity leave; the vacant opening spot left by the retired Alviro Petersen also needs to be filled.
The second and final Test will be played in Dhaka from July 30 to August 3.
South Africa: Hashim Amla (capt), Faf du Plessis, JP Duminy, Quinton de Kock (wk), Aaron Phangiso, Kagiso Rabada, Morne Morkel, Dean Elgar, Reeza Hendricks, Stiaan van Zyl, Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn, Simon Harmer, Temba Bavuma, Dane Vilas.
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Bangladesh: Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Mominul Haque, Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim(c), Shakib Al Hasan, Litton Das(w), Taijul Islam, Mohammad Shahid, Mustafizur Rahman, Jubair Hossain.
