Cape Town - Bangladesh are playing some of their best ever cricket at the moment and secured their first-ever win over Australia in Test cricket last week.
It suggests that Proteas will not have it all their own way when the sides clash in two Tests later this month.
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South Africa are coming off a disappointing tour of England where they lost the ODI series 2-1, the T20Is series 2-1, the Tests series 3-1 and crashed out in the group stages of the ICC Champions Trophy.
In an exclusive interview with Sport24 in Johannesburg last week, Proteas fast bowler Kagiso Rabada said if the Proteas can steer away from their "patchy" performance in England, they could come away with a series win against Bangladesh.
"England was just a bit patchy. Every time we lost we had time to get back into the game, but we couldn't," said Rabada.
"So I guess it's just facing those things, getting our record nice and straight and finding out where we went wrong and trying to convert at times.
"We always knew Bangladesh was a good side and they're coming up the ranks.
"We were never going to take them lightly, but they are playing (Australia) in their own conditions, which favour them more.
"You can really say, 'Well done to them', but they played in conditions that suited them a lot, and they'll come here and play in much harder conditions."
Former Proteas all-rounder Shaun Pollock told Sport24 that Faf du Plessis and his charges cannot write off the England series despite the Proteas being confident in their own backyard.
"You've always got to learn your lessons from your past series," said Pollock, who was a commentator during the Proteas tour to England.
"We weren't great, I think the guys will be a bit disappointed.
"They definitely have to learn, you can't just write things off. It can't be that way ... you learn a lesson from everything in life whether it's good or bad.
"They need to learn what they did wrong and how they can improve, get the balance of the side right in order to get themselves the best chance to win.
"They had some time now to regroup, it's a fresh environment, new coach comes in and that will give a little spark to things."
The Bangladesh tour consists of two Test matches, three ODIs and two T20 International matches with the first Test starting on September 28.