Proteas coach Shukri Conrad is relishing the prospect of playing eight Tests in the next five months.

Test-starved South Africa have played just six red-ball matches in the past 18 months, including two against New Zealand earlier this year for which a C team was selected due to the SA20.

Conrad will on Tuesday name his squad for the two-match Test series against the West Indies that starts on 7 August in Trinidad.

The Proteas will then play two away Tests against Bangladesh before two-Test home series against each of Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

“To have a proper season of Test cricket, I’m thrilled,” Conrad told the Sunday Times. “It’s a run of eight Tests that will have a bearing on where we end on the World Test Championship log. So that creates the kind of pressure that you want associated with Test cricket.

“The last time this group would have been together was the one-and-a-half day debacle at Newlands against India [in January].”

Conrad will have all of his big-name players available, including captain Temba Bavuma, who suffered a hamstring injury in the first Test against India last December.

“He is in a good space and really confident about where he is, both physically and mentally,” said the coach.