Six months without first-class cricket is enough to mislay the finer points of Test batting and bowling, particularly if the likely conditions are not hardwired into muscle memory. That will be part of the challenge facing the Proteas when they tour Bangladesh in July to play two T20s, three one-day internationals and two Tests.When the Test series starts on July 21 - and if South Africa's or South Africa A's fixtures are not added to - four key players will have not played first-class cricket in more than six months.Another four will last have played in whites in March, while another, Alviro Petersen, has retired from the international scene.That will leave only two, Hashim Amla and Vernon Philander - who are currently playing for Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire - truly fighting fit.Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn and Morné Morkel will not have seen any first-class action between the Newlands Test against West Indies in January and the start of the Bangladesh series.The upside is that all have played in the Indian Premier League and will be attuned to the conditions they will face.In fact, they could be in better nick than Dean Elgar, Temba Bavuma, Stiaan van Zyl and Simon Harmer, who last played first-class cricket for their franchises in the second half of March.Bavuma said yesterday: "Preparation will be mental more than anything else considering that the conditions will be so different to what we're used to."But we'll try to simulate those conditions as much as possible beforehand."The situation promises to test the selectors. How do they go about picking a squad on precious little evidence of current or even recent form?Former selection convenor Mike Procter said: "You can only go on what you know, and in this instance that means mostly what's happened in the past. You would work out who should play and consider the claims of a couple of youngsters and golden oldies."Procter agreed that the fact that top-ranked SA would face a side pegged at No 9 carried a far lower risk than a more significant challenge.He said: "If they were going to England, for instance, it would be different. But then it would probably have been arranged differently."Amla scored one and 20 against Northamptonshire earlier this month in his only first-class match for Derbyshire so far. Philander took 4/56 against Somerset on Sunday, as yet his best performance for Notts...