The Australia men's cricket team toured South Africa in August and September 2023 to play five One Day Internationals (ODI) and three Twenty20 Internationals (T20I) matches. The ODI matches formed part of both teams' preparations for the 2023 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup (which Australia won).
Originally, the tour was scheduled to take place in March 2021, and three Test matches were slated to be played. Those matches would have formed part of the 2019–2021 ICC World Test Championship tournament. However, that tour was postponed in February 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Background In December 2020, South Africa's One Day International (ODI) series against England was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, both cricket boards were looking at contingency plans for the Test series, including the possibility of playing the matches in Perth or the United Arab Emirates. An initial provisional start date for the tour of 18 February 2021 meant a tight turnaround from the end of South Africa's tour of Pakistan, although an update in January suggested the tour would begin in March 2021.
On 27 January 2021, Cricket Australia (CA) named their squad for the tour, ahead of any confirmation of the dates of the fixtures. However, on 2 February 2021, Cricket Australia announced that the tour had been postponed due to the pandemic. As a result of the tour being postponed, New Zealand qualified for the final of the 2019–2021 ICC World Test Championship. In October 2021, Cricket Australia said that they were looking at a window in 2023 to play the white-ball matches.
Squads ODIsT20IsODIsT20Is Temba Bavuma (c) Dewald Brevis Gerald Coetzee Quinton de Kock (wk) Bjorn Fortuin Reeza Hendricks Marco Jansen Heinrich Klaasen Sisanda Magala Keshav Maharaj Aiden Markram David Miller Lungi Ngidi Anrich Nortje Wayne Parnell Kagiso Rabada Tabraiz Shamsi Tristan Stubbs (wk) Rassie van der Dussen Aiden Markram (c) Temba Bavuma Matthew Breetzke (wk) Dewald Brevis Gerald Coetzee Donovan Ferreira (wk) Bjorn Fortuin Reeza Hendricks Marco Jansen Sisanda Magala Keshav Maharaj Lungi Ngidi Tabraiz Shamsi Tristan Stubbs (wk) Rassie van der Dussen Lizaad Williams Mitchell Marsh (c) Sean Abbott Ashton Agar Alex Carey (wk) Pat Cummins Tim David Nathan Ellis Cameron Green Aaron Hardie Josh Hazlewood Travis Head Josh Inglis (wk) Spencer Johnson Marnus Labuschagne Glenn Maxwell Tanveer Sangha Steve Smith Mitchell Starc Marcus Stoinis David Warner Adam Zampa Michael Neser Mitchell Marsh (c) Sean Abbott Jason Behrendorff Tim David Nathan Ellis Aaron Hardie Travis Head Josh Inglis (wk) Spencer Johnson Glenn Maxwell Tanveer Sangha Matthew Short Steve Smith Marcus Stoinis Ashton Turner Matthew Wade (wk) Adam Zampa On 18 August 2023, Australia's Steve Smith and Mitchell Starc were ruled out of tour due to injuries. Ashton Turner replaced Smith in the T20I squad, whereas Marnus Labuschagne and Spencer Johnson replaced Smith and Starc respectively in the ODI squad. On the same day, Mitchell Marsh replaced Pat Cummins as Australia's ODI captain for the tour, with Cummins' participation in doubt as he was returning from a wrist injury. Initially, Glenn Maxwell was set to miss the ODI series to return home for the birth of his first child. However, he was also ruled out of the T20I series due to an injury and was replaced by Matthew Wade in the Australia's T20I squad. On the day of first T20I, Tanveer Sangha was added to Australia's T20I Squad, after Adam Zampa couldn't play due to illness. On 31 August 2023, Tim David was added to Australia's ODI squad. On 10 September 2023, Michael Neser was added to Australia's ODI squad.
T20I series 1st T20I
2nd T20I
3rd T20I
ODI series 1st ODI
2nd ODI
3rd ODI
4th ODI
5th ODI
Notes
References
External links Series home at ESPNcricinfo