Australia is scheduled to return to Cape Town in October for the first time in a Test match since the infamous 2018 ball-tampering saga.
The schedule for Australia’s three-Test series in South Africa has been released, with matches to be played in Durban and Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) before the final clash at Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town.
Australia will also play a three-match away One Day International (ODI) series against South Africa in September.
South Africa beat Australia 3-1 in 2018 across four Tests, but it was the third Test in Cape Town that created worldwide headlines when the Sandpapergate scandal erupted on the third day in a 322-run loss.
In the aftermath, captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were sent home ahead of the fourth Test. Later, Cricket Australia banned Smith and Warner from international and domestic cricket in Australia for 12 months and slapped Bancroft with a nine-month ban.
Smith is set to return with the team in October. The bowling quartet of captain Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon are the only other current squad members remaining from the Newlands team eight years ago.
While Smith returned to South Africa in early 2020 for a series of white-ball fixtures, this tour will feature his first Tests in the country since the ball-tampering scandal. He is likely to return as vice-captain to Cummins.
Australia’s ball-tampering scandal exploded during the 2018 Cape Town Test against South Africa. (Gallo Images via Getty: Ashley Vlotman)
The series will be crucial to Australia’s World Test Championship hopes. South Africa is the world Test champion after beating Australia in the final last year at Lord’s.
Australia leads the World Test Championship ladder with seven wins from eight matches. New Zealand is second and South Africa is third.
The Australians, who will play Bangladesh in Darwin and Mackay in a two-Test series in August, will host New Zealand in a four-Test series on returning from South Africa before touring India early next year, where five Tests will be played for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
The South Africa series looms as a huge challenge for Australia’s top order, which struggled to handle superstar paceman Kagiso Rabada at Lord’s last year.
Rabada took nine wickets for the match and was well supported by Marco Jansen and Lungi Ngidi in what is a fearsome pace attack.
AAP
