The Proteas head into somewhat uncharted territory as they take on Bangladesh in the first of two Test matches. South Africa will be without a number of their regular stars such as Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje and Rassie van der Dussen, who are all away at the IPL. Added to that, South Africa have a poor recent record at Thursday’s venue, Kingsmead, having lost six of their last eight Tests in Durban, going back to 2009/10. Their last win at this ground came back in 2012/13 against India. Bangladesh, meanwhile, have never won a Test match in South Africa, losing all six of their previous matches here. They will be buoyed by the fact that they won the ODI series though, in the process recording their first series win in that format in South Africa. With this being a two-match series, Test captain Dean Elgar said that it was important for them to buck the trend of starting slowly.