South Africa to decide whether to tour Bangladesh this week

Cricket South Africa (CSA), in consultation with the South African Cricketers' Association (SACA), will make a decision by the end of this week on whether the Test team will travel to Bangladesh for two matches next month.

The series, according to the Future Tours Programme, is scheduled to start on October 21 but South Africa's willingness to tour Bangladesh depends on the security reports, which are currently being completed.

The Women's T20 World Cup 2024, which was originally scheduled in Bangladesh, was moved out of the country after the anti-government protests there in early August. CSA sources told ESPNcricinfo the information they have is that the situation in Bangladesh has settled and that South Africa are hopeful they will be able to tour, but they emphasised that they will not travel if any risks were identified in the security assessments.

A decision will be made collectively, which means it is unlikely that CSA will leave it to individual players to decide whether they are comfortable with travelling to Bangladesh.

South Africa only have six Test matches left in the ongoing World Test Championship [WTC] cycle. They have already played six games, having won two, lost three and drawn one Test. They are currently seventh on the points table and need to win at least five of their remaining games to have a chance of qualifying for next year's final at Lord's.

All six of their series in this cycle have been limited to two Tests as CSA prioritised the launch of the SA20, their domestic T20 franchise competition, and cost-cutting. It is understood that there is no thought of playing the Bangladesh Tests elsewhere at the moment.

If they do travel to Bangladesh, South Africa are unlikely to go with Marco Jansen or Gerald Coetzee with both fast bowlers expected to be back in action only by November. South Africa will next travel to the UAE for a white-ball series against Afghanistan and Ireland with plenty of fresh faces in the mix.