Captain Temba Bavuma says the Proteas will take confidence into the Test series in India as he prepares to make his return to action in Bengaluru on Thursday.

Bavuma will feature in the second four-day match between South Africa A and India A at the Centre of Excellence, his first red-ball appearance since leading the Proteas to victory in the World Test Championship final at Lord’s in June.

The 35-year-old has been sidelined with a calf strain since the ODI series against England, missing the subsequent Tests against Pakistan.

“My last Test was Lord’s, so quite a while back. I think that the four-day SA A game is important just to get time on the feet, get the body used to being out in the sun, dust off any cobwebs, opportunity to bat in the middle,” Bavuma told SportsBoom.co.za.

“So, start getting that familiar feeling, try and find some sort of rhythm, especially in these conditions. But, mainly, just to spend some time out in the sun.”

The Proteas have endured a difficult decade in India, failing to win any of their last seven Tests there. Bavuma, who has been part of all those matches alongside Kagiso Rabada, said the upcoming series represents another chance to set things right.

“It’s my third Test tour with the Proteas in India,” he said. “The challenge is always a daunting one; it’s always a challenging one. We’ve been unsuccessful as a team on the previous two Test tours, so we’re obviously looking to do that right and to rectify that.

“In terms of the conditions, we obviously expect spin to play a big part as it normally does in the subcontinent. The Indian team do have firepower in their seam bowling resources, so we expect that to be a challenge as well, maybe reverse swing to come into play, but we expect that to be challenging in all aspects.

“The Indian batters know how to score big hundreds in their conditions, so it’s important that we also find ways to put them under pressure, but we expect the series to be tough.”

Citing New Zealand’s 3-0 series win in India last year, Bavuma insisted that no team is unbeatable and that the Proteas can take lessons from that performance.

“No team is unbeatable, right? Yes, home conditions give them that home advantage or extra advantage, but no one is unbeatable. New Zealand played very well in that series,” said Bavuma.

“Batters were fearless, bowlers executed their plans very well, and fielders fielded well, took their catches. So, those are the type of things that we’ll also be looking to do.

“We take confidence from the fact that we’ve been able to be victorious in these types of conditions.

“We do have a familiarity or some sort of a blueprint when it comes to playing in these conditions. We come here with confidence, having come from the [drawn] Pakistan series and our performance in the second Test. I guess it’s a case of just building on that.”

The two-match Test series between India and South Africa starts on 14 November at Eden Gardens, before moving to Guwahati for the second Test from 22 to 26 November.