South Africa turned off by the rain

Dale Steyn has played street soccer and been taken out for supper by Shakib al Hasan. Quinton de Kock and Kagiso Rabada have been watching horror movies and Hashim Amla has entertained some of his younger crop - Simon Harmer, Dean Elgar and Dane Vilas. But none of that has left South Africa any happier with their lot in Bangladesh.

"It's very frustrating for us at the moment, especially after Chittagong, it looks like the rain followed us here or it's been here as well," Elgar said at what was supposed to be a team training session in Dhaka.

Wet weather meant the South African practice had to be moved indoors, which extended their cabin fever to a fourth day after two from the first Test were washed out as well. With more rain forecast for the week, it's little wonder Elgar could not find a silver lining.

"It looks like we are never going to play cricket again here," he said.

If the second Test scheduled for Thursday struggles to get underway, South Africa will only have played eight out of a possible 15 days of international cricket on their five-week tour of Bangladesh. And they will leave with a lot of unfinished business.

Apart from a series victory, which South Africa will be going after with some gusto should play take place, they will also want to establish which players to take to India - their next, and perhaps most important, Test assignment this year. There, South Africa will not want to be a team in transition, as they are now in Bangladesh. But without sufficient match time in Mirpur, they may not have another choice.

South Africa will be heartened by Harmer's claim for the specialist spinner's role but may still want to turn to Dane Piedt, or Aaron Phangiso, or Eddie Leie. They will be satisfied in the way Temba Bavuma stepped up but may not know where they can fit him, especially when AB de Villiers returns. They will also be impressed with Stiaan van Zyl's first attempt in the opening role but may have wanted to see more of him.

At least on that last count, they can rely on Elgar's assessment: "Stiaan is very new to the opening berth and I see where I can assist and help him. He is a very talented player," Elgar said. "There's no added pressure irrespective of the guys who have retired - Graeme Smith and Alviro Petersen. What they have done was awesome but it's time for myself and Stiaan to put our hands up and make the position ours."

With regards to South Africa's prospects in the Mirpur Test, Elgar said a big first innings total may be the only way to beat the weather. "In the subcontinent, the first innings seems to be quite important for both teams and batting once is an ideal but we understand there's a lot of hard work that goes into doing that," he said. "It takes a lot of pressure off the side and then you can just go out and express yourselves with the ball."

Elgar admitted South Africa did not "execute well," enough to do that in Chittagong, but said if they improve on that it could create the canvas for the bowlers to colour. "Our bowlers are experienced enough to get 20 wickets in these conditions. We definitely have the best bowlers around at the moment," he said.

Unless the rain stops, all of that will just be talk; something South Africa generally prefer not to do when it comes to cricket. They also prefer to disconnect from the daily drag of the game, as Steyn did when went out to play football with no cricket possible.

"It's very important to switch off from the game totally so when you have your time off you try and not think about cricket too much," Elgar said. "When it's practice and game time, you switch back on. You can't be playing the game in your head the whole time. It's quite exhausting when you are always thinking about the game."

And so far on this wet old tour, South Africa are becoming experts in exactly the opposite.