Nine years after their last five-day cricket meeting on South African soil ended in a sandpaper scandal, Australia and South Africa walked out at Kingsmead in Durban on October 9 to begin a three-Test series that pits the two leading sides in the current World Test Championship cycle against each other. The opener is the first of three Tests, with the series moving to St George’s Park in Gqeberha from October 18 and finishing at Newlands in Cape Town from October 27, and it marks South Africa’s first Test on home soil since they were crowned WTC champions at Lord’s in June 2025.
A Rivalry Reset After 2018
The two sides’ last Test series in South Africa, in 2018, is remembered less for the cricket than for the fallout from the Newlands ball-tampering affair, in which Australia’s Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were sanctioned for using sandpaper to alter the ball. Australia have not played a Test series in South Africa since. That history gives this series, by South African captain Temba Bavuma’s own description reported by TimesLIVE, an edge beyond the points table: a chance for the Proteas to beat Australia at home for the first time since the controversy, on their own terms.
Defending Champions, Finally at Home
South Africa have not lacked for away success since lifting the WTC mace. According to TimesLIVE, the Proteas drew 1-1 in a two-Test series in Pakistan and then won 2-0 in India in October and November 2025, a result rare enough for a touring side that it was described as historic. What they have not yet done is defend their title in front of their own supporters, which is what makes the Durban Test the symbolic start of South Africa’s title defence rather than merely the next fixture on the calendar.
Bavuma: ‘A Target on Our Backs’
Speaking before the series, Bavuma acknowledged the shift in expectations that comes with being world champions. “There is a target on our backs if I could say it that way,” he said, according to TimesLIVE, adding that he had not sensed any fear in the dressing room despite the scrutiny: “Being in the changeroom, I don’t see guys scared when we talk about that.” Bavuma also predicted Australia would respond strongly in Durban after a difficult recent assignment of their own.
Australia Arrive With Momentum to Rebuild
That difficult assignment was a home series against Bangladesh in August 2026, in which Australia lost the opening Test at Marrara Oval in Darwin by nine wickets, Bangladesh’s first-ever Test win on Australian soil, built on a maiden century from Tanzid Hasan and a five-wicket haul from Mehidy Hasan Miraz. Australia hit back to level the series 1-1 with an innings-and-51-run victory in Mackay, inspired by a ten-wicket match haul from Mitchell Starc, but the shock defeat in Darwin lingers as a reminder that the top-ranked Test side is not invulnerable. Bavuma’s expectation that Australia would “come back strong” in Durban reflects a wary respect rather than complacency.
What the Points Table Says
The stakes extend well beyond this series alone. Australia sit first in the current World Test Championship standings on a percentage of points won of 87.5, with South Africa second on 75 and New Zealand third on 72.22, according to Wisden’s points-table analysis of the 2025-27 cycle. A South African series win in front of home crowds would close that gap meaningfully heading toward the 2027 final at The Oval, while an Australian series win would stretch their lead and reassert the gulf that has defined the cycle so far. Both captains are aware that Durban, Gqeberha and Cape Town will not just decide bragging rights but will shape who is best placed for the run-in.
What’s Next
With the opening Test underway, attention turns to how both sides manage the remainder of a long home summer for South Africa, who still have Bangladesh and England to host before the year is out. For Australia, a response in Durban would go some way to erasing memories of Darwin; for South Africa, simply surviving the series unbeaten would be a statement that the WTC title was no one-off. Either way, the next two Tests, in Gqeberha and then Cape Town, will carry the weight of a rivalry that has waited nine years to resume at full intensity.
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