Bangladesh won the toss and chose to bat first against South Africa in the opening Test of the two-match series at Kingsmead Cricket Ground in Durban on Thursday.
According to BSS, the Tigers have lost 10 Tests against South Africa out of 12, with eight of the defeats coming by an innings margin. The rest of the two Tests were washed out by rain. They so far played six Tests in South and lost all.
Despite their dismal record in Test against South Africa, Bangladesh's chances looked high basically for three reasons-of late they beat New Zealand in Test on New Zealand soil before beating South Africa by 2-1 in ODI series.
And also South Africa will be without their entire first-choice pace attack - comprising Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi and Marco Jansen - as well as batters Aiden Markram and Rassie van der Dussen as they chose the IPL over the Test series. Fast bowler Anrich Nortje once again missed out on selection with a longstanding back and hip issue.
Squads
Bangladesh: 1 Mominul Haque, 2 Shadman Islam, 3 Mahmudul Hasan Joy, 4 Najmul Hossain Shanto, 5 Mushfiqur Rahim, 6 Yasir Ali, 7 Litton Das (wk), 8 Mehidy Hasan Miraz, 9 Taskin Ahmed, 10 Khaled Ahmed, 11 Ebadot Hossain
South Africa: 1 Dean Elgar, 2 Sarel Erwee, 3 Kegan Petersen, 4 Temba Bavuma, 5 Ryan Rickleton, 6 Kyle Verreynne, 7 Wiaan Mulder, 8 Keshav Maharaj, 9 Simon Harmer, 10 Lizaad Williams, 11 Duanne Olivier