Australia’s first Test tour of South Africa since 2018 begins in earnest this month, with the opening match of a three-Test series set for Kingsmead in Durban from October 9-13, before the series moves on to Newlands in Cape Town for the finale from October 27-31 — the very ground where the infamous ball-tampering scandal unfolded eight years ago.
A three-Test series with a heavy backstory
The tour, which forms part of the 2025-27 World Test Championship cycle, pits the last two champions of the format against each other: South Africa, who beat Australia in the previous WTC final, will defend home turf and their status as reigning champions, while Australia arrive looking to atone for that final defeat as well as the wounds of 2018. Temba Bavuma leads South Africa and Pat Cummins captains the touring side, with the series schedule running across Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town over roughly six weeks.
Revisiting Sandpapergate
The last time Australia played a Test at Newlands, in March 2018, Cameron Bancroft was filmed using sandpaper to alter the condition of the ball during the third Test of that series. The fallout was immediate and severe: Bancroft received a nine-month ban, while then-captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner were suspended for twelve months each, a scandal that reshaped Australian cricket’s leadership and culture for years afterward. A preview published by Cape Times, written by former South Africa captain Graeme Smith, walked through that history in detail ahead of this year’s series, underlining how the Cape Town Test in particular remains loaded with symbolism for both camps.
What has changed since 2018
Both squads look markedly different from the sides involved in the 2018 saga. Cummins, who was not implicated in the scandal, now captains a side that has since won a World Test Championship title and reached another final, while South Africa’s squad — led by Bavuma and built around bowlers such as Kagiso Rabada — enters as the reigning WTC champion looking to defend home advantage against a rival with unfinished business. Cricket.com.au’s coverage of the schedule noted that the return itself was treated as a milestone by administrators on both sides, given how long it has been since Australia toured South Africa for Tests.
Diverging expectations
South African commentators have largely framed the series as a chance for the champions to prove the WTC title was no fluke, pointing to Rabada’s express pace and home conditions as the deciding factors. Australian voices, meanwhile, have focused on Cummins’ bowling attack and the depth added since 2018, arguing that the current touring squad bears little resemblance — in temperament or personnel — to the side embroiled in the tampering row, and should be judged purely on cricketing terms rather than historical baggage. That tension between remembrance and moving on has shaped much of the pre-series build-up.
What’s at stake as the series begins
Beyond the historical undertones, the series carries direct implications for the World Test Championship table, with both sides needing strong results to stay in contention for the next final. A result at Kingsmead will set the tone before the series shifts to Johannesburg and then to Cape Town, where the Newlands Test is expected to draw outsized attention regardless of the series scoreline by that point. For players on both sides who were not part of the 2018 tour, the series offers a chance to write a new chapter for the fixture, even as older observers continue to measure it against what happened the last time Australia set foot on South African soil for a Test match.
The broadcasters and boards treating this as a marquee event
Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa have both leaned into the historical framing in their promotion of the series, aware that the Sandpapergate angle guarantees attention beyond the usual cricketing audience. Broadcast previews have combined match-up analysis of the two attacks with retrospectives on 2018, interviewing players and officials who were involved at the time alongside current squad members with no direct connection to the scandal. That dual approach — treating the series both as a serious World Test Championship contest and as a symbolic reckoning with the sport’s past — has shaped almost all of the pre-series coverage, from the ODI series that preceded the Tests through to the build-up for the Durban opener.
The cricketing questions beneath the history
Strip away the symbolism, and the series poses real cricketing questions. South Africa’s attack, spearheaded by Kagiso Rabada, will look to exploit historically pace-friendly conditions at Kingsmead and the Wanderers before the series shifts to the traditionally more even Newlands surface. Australia’s batting order, still adjusting to life without some of the senior figures from the 2018 era, will be tested by extra bounce and seam movement that has troubled touring sides in South Africa for decades. Cummins will also be managing his own bowling workload carefully across three Tests in six weeks, a scheduling factor that selectors on both sides have flagged as potentially as decisive as any historical subplot once the cricket actually begins.
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