South Africa v Bangladesh, 1st Test - Bangladesh's predicted XI

South Africa, who tottered quite amusingly at the hands of England, will now face a stiff challenge against an upbeat Bangladesh. The visitors will be riding on a lot of confidence after their impressive performance against Australia, but this is a different team at a different venue. Not once did Bangladesh win a game against the Proteas and it’ll be interesting to see what turns out on the big day.

Shakib Al Hasan will not be a part of the team for this big series, which is a huge letdown for the visitors. But the Tigers have a lot of talented players in their squad and they can’t repent on the absence of one individual. The last time these both teams met at this venue (Potchefstroom) was back in 2002, where the hosts emerged victorious inside 3 days by an innings and 160 runs.

There are a lot of things against Bangladesh at this point of time, but they’ve been on a mission off-late to break all the stereotypical barricades. They are hungry to prove themselves against the high-profile sides and this series will be one heck of a challenge for them. The Safari music won’t be too sweet to their ears, but this challenge will determine how far their cricket has progressed.

Here’s the predicted XI of Bangladesh

Openers (Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes)

Tamim Iqbal has been a revelation in Bangladesh’s cricket history and he’s inching closer towards the 4,000 runs mark in Tests. He will be accompanying a different opening partner on Thursday as Imrul Kayes is all set to get an invaluable chance.

Though Soumya Sarkar’s injury has not been that series, there has been no confirmation regarding his participation in the opening game of the series. Imrul Kayes has been in and out of the side due to his inconsistency and this will be his big opportunity to prove himself at the helm of the batting order.

Middle Order (Liton Das, Mominul Haque, and Mushfiqur Rahim)

Liton Das will be taking the number three spot for Bangladesh and it’ll be interesting to see how the youngsters copes with the adverse Proteas conditions. Mominul Haque has been terrific in recent times and a good performance from him will do a world of good for his skipper.

Mushfiqur Rahim will be batting at number 5 and he will also be taking the wicket-keeping duties. The first ever Bangladeshi cricketer to score a a double-ton in Tests, Mushfiqur will be aware of a fact that he’s the only reliable and experienced campaigner in the middler order and he will aprroach the situation sensibly.

All-rounder (Mahmudullah)

Mahmudullah Riyad is definitely one of the finest prospects in Bangladesh’s cricket, but he took a lot of time to find his true potential. On his day, he can win games on his own and his performance in the 2015 ICC World Cup was a testimony to that fact. He can chip in with a lot of overs as well and given there’s a little bit of grip available, he will turn quite a lethal weapon in Mushfiqur’s arsenal.

Spinners (Taijul Islam and Mehidy Hasan)

Historically the South African tracks offer support mostly to the quick bowlers, Bangladesh will enter the battlfield with their best spinning options. Taijul Islam and Mehidy Hasan proved to be unplayable at one point for the Aussies in the Test series and once again, these lads will pose quite a challenge for the South Africans.

There’s a good chance that this plan might backfire. If the tracks are assisting the fast bowlers too much and there’s no considerable amount of turn or bounce on the track, the Proteas batters will make a mockery of the duo and will post a humongous total on board.

Fast bowlers (Mustafizur Rahman, Shafiul Islam, and Taskin Ahmed)

Bangladesh are all set to go with 6 batsman and 5 bowlers in the game and this won’t be an easy combination for them to get used to. This means that there will be three frontline fast bowlers in the XI and they are Mustafizur Rahman, Shafiul Islam, and Taskin Ahmed.

Taskin and Shafiul’s pace can do a lot of damage given they hit the right channels on a consistent basis. But Mustafizur’s trickery will be a key in deceiving the big names in the side like Hashim Amla or Faf du Plessis. None of these players have played in South Africa previously and it’ll be interesting to see how they respond to the track.