International cricket tour
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.[1][2] The ODI matches formed part of both teams' preparations for the 2023 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup (which Australia won).[3]
Originally, the tour was scheduled to take place in March 2021,[4][5] and three Test matches were slated to be played.[6] Those matches would have formed part of the 2019–2021 ICC World Test Championship tournament.[7] However, that tour was postponed in February 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[8]
Background
In December 2020, South Africa's One Day International (ODI) series against England was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[9] 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.[10] 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,[11] although an update in January suggested the tour would begin in March 2021.[12]
On 27 January 2021, Cricket Australia (CA) named their squad for the tour, ahead of any confirmation of the dates of the fixtures.[13][14] However, on 2 February 2021, Cricket Australia announced that the tour had been postponed due to the pandemic.[15] As a result of the tour being postponed, New Zealand qualified for the final of the 2019–2021 ICC World Test Championship.[16] In October 2021, Cricket Australia said that they were looking at a window in 2023 to play the white-ball matches.[17]
Squads
On 18 August 2023, Australia's Steve Smith and Mitchell Starc were ruled out of tour due to injuries.[22] Ashton Turner replaced Smith in the T20I squad, whereas Marnus Labuschagne and Spencer Johnson replaced Smith and Starc respectively in the ODI squad.[23] On the same day, Mitchell Marsh replaced Pat Cummins as Australia's ODI captain for the tour,[24] with Cummins' participation in doubt as he was returning from a wrist injury.[25] Initially, Glenn Maxwell was set to miss the ODI series to return home for the birth of his first child.[26] 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.[27]
[28] On the day of first T20I, Tanveer Sangha was added to Australia's T20I Squad, after Adam Zampa couldn't play due to illness.[29] On 31 August 2023, Tim David was added to Australia's ODI squad.[30]
On 10 September 2023, Michael Neser was added to Australia's ODI squad.
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