Australia must respond in Cape Town or risk seeing their Test careers ended, with the series level at 1-1 after South Africa won the second Test by an innings and 31 runs in Gqeberha. The series-deciding third Test starts at 7.30am on Tuesday (8am first ball). It is the first Test Australia have played in Cape Town since the ball-tampering scandal of 2018.
Australia were bowled out for 99 in the first innings at Gqeberha, and their batting has been struggling for some time. In the 4-1 Ashes win over England last winter, Travis Head, Steve Smith and Alex Carey held the batting together while others struggled. So far in South Africa, the tourists have managed only three individual fifties: one for Head and two for Matt Renshaw.
Head has been the exception. His second-innings 121 in Durban was 81 more runs than the next-highest score by an Australian in that match. Smith, who was banned for his part as captain in the 2018 sandpaper affair alongside Cameron Bancroft and David Warner, has also stuttered, managing three innings in the 20s and a knock of three. He was hampered by a neck problem in Gqeberha and now faces a late fitness test before the Cape Town finale. If he cannot play, it could open the door for Marnus Labuschagne to keep his place.
Labuschagne and the selectors under pressure
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting described Labuschagne’s position as “untenable” after a lean home series against Bangladesh. He has now gone 47 innings without a Test century, stretching back to the 2023 Ashes in England. In South Africa, the country of his birth, he has passed 30 in three of his four innings but has not gone on to a bigger score. He was pinned lbw, sliced to cover, caught brilliantly at gully by Simon Harmer, and then holed out to long-on in the second innings of the second Test, a game Australia were trying to save.
If Labuschagne misses out in Cape Town, his career could be finished. If he plays and fails, the outcome may be much the same. If Australia lose as a team, pressure could mount on head selector George Bailey. Former captain Steve Waugh said before the Ashes that Bailey had shown a lack of “appetite” for making the big calls, and the selection of Nic Maddinson for the South Africa tour was criticised at the time by Matthew Hayden.
Maddinson’s struggles highlight Australia’s problem
Maddinson, 34, had not played a first-class match since March 2025 after being diagnosed with testicular cancer, and he averaged 6.75 from his first three Tests in 2016. Hayden accused the selectors of “disrespecting first-class cricket” and of “promoting the greatest pile of mediocrity that we’ve seen in a generation of cricket.” Maddinson has averaged 14 in this series, scoring 56 runs from four innings, 48 of them in a single knock. He has since been released from the squad, with Renshaw set to open alongside Head in Cape Town.
Many supporters wanted Maddinson to succeed given what he had been through, but he has not delivered. That raises the question of whether a younger player should have been given the chance instead. Ollie Davies, Sam Konstas, Campbell Kellaway and Nathan McSweeney were all options. The difficulty is that Australia no longer have a deep group of players waiting in the wings, as they did in earlier eras, when players averaging over 40 were scoring heavily in domestic cricket, often in English county cricket. Every one of the alternatives mentioned averages in the mid-30s or lower in first-class cricket.
Bavuma aims to extend his captaincy record
South Africa, by contrast, can rely on captain Temba Bavuma, who is averaging 49.95 across his last 28 Tests. His 179 from 334 balls in Gqeberha was a brilliant innings, coming after he walked in at 12-2. He was at the other end when the Proteas slumped to 110-6, and he went on to help them reach 425-9. He has won 12 of his 14 Tests as captain. A 13th win from 15 would be another strong return, unless Australia can produce something special in Cape Town.