What the watch for as Proteas take on Tigers
START
THE Proteas are notoriously slow starters in any series. It's something the Mark Boucher/Temba Bavuma/ Dean Elgar era inherited from predecessors, but it's a problem they haven't resolved.
The awareness about the problem exists, they certainly get reminded about it enough through the media and they talk about it in team meetings. That first hour, of the first session on the first day, will be well worth seeing how they turn those words into deeds
CONDITIONS
It's now become tradition that Kingsmead is low and slow (Shaun Pollock still sheds a tear), but Keshav Maharaj mentioned yesterday that the first Test will be played on a relayed part of the square so he was unsure how much spin there would be.
The Proteas continue to mull over the composition of their starting team, especially whether to pick two frontline spinners, something no South African team has done for a home Test in the post-isolation period.
SUBCONTINENT
Bangladesh couldn't have asked for better venues at which to face SA. The Proteas have won just one of their last nine Tests in Durban. The other three sub-continent teams have each won a Test at Kingsmead, with Sri Lanka doing so twice.
Can the Tigers follow in their neighbours' footsteps? Confidence won't be an issue and they will feel now is the right time to tackle the Proteas who will be vulnerable without their frontline pace attack and feeling low after losing the one-day international series.
The IPL Will certainly be hanging over the first Test (and most likely be on the TVs in the change-room at the end of play). That competition has removed SA's pace attack, while the rock in the middle order Rassie van der Dussen is also unavailable.
This is also just the start with the IPL likely to cause more schedule problems in the future, SA will have to rejig their calendar.
PROTEAS BATTING
With only Van der Dussen absent, the batting isn't as affected by the IPL as the bowling. Certainly SA's top three; Elgar, Sarel Erwee and Keegan Petersen, look pretty strong, despite the last two's lack of Test experience. There should also be the opportunity to see Ryan Rickelton finally make a debut, and hopefully his overall form this season will lead to success in the Test arena.