DURBAN
\nAustralia play their first Test in South Africa since the 2018 ball-tampering scandal when they start a three-match series in Durban on Friday, with the visitors unlikely to face more than a few heckles over the incident that rocked the sport eight years ago.
\nThe tourists\u2019 efforts to roughen up the ball using sandpaper, and aid reverse swing, in Cape Town in March 2018 were caught on camera and led to a major reckoning for the game in Australia, with captain Steve Smith among those banned for their role in the subterfuge.
\nSouth Africa have played Tests in Australia since \u2018Sandpapergate\u2019, and Australia have toured South Africa in the interim for limited-overs internationals.
\nThe scandal has attracted little media focus in South Africa over recent weeks in comparison to the attention devoted to the incident in the Australian press.
\nAfter dethroning Australia last year in a thrilling World Test Championship final at Lord\u2019s to win a first major title, South Africa are focused on improving their chances of a return to the final at the end of the 2025\u201327 WTC cycle.
\nAustralia are also in need of a boost after a surprise home Test defeat by Bangladesh in August and with an Ashes tour to England starting next June.
\nThe pitch at Kingsmead often proves a fickle track but should offer the spinners a chance to play a leading role in a change from South Africa\u2019s usually seamer-friendly surfaces.
\nIt is unusual for South Africa\u2019s chances to be largely entrusted to their spin attack, but Simon Harmer and Keshav Maharaj wreaked havoc in India last November when they triumphed in their last two Test outings.
\nSpin was also a key factor for the home side as they beat Australia in the recent One-Day International series.
\nSouth Africa may therefore opt to rest frontline attack bowler Kagiso Rabada from the Test as he continues his comeback from a hamstring injury.
\nInjury to Australia all-rounder Cameron Green opens up a chance at number five for Cooper Connolly, or a fairytale return for 34-year-old Nic Maddinson after recovering from cancer.
\nSouth Africa\u2019s also has a choice to make over their number three batsman, with coach Shukri Conrad having several options including a potential first cap for 30-year-old Marques Ackerman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DURBAN Australia play their first Test in South Africa since the 2018 ball-tampering scandal when they start a three-match series in Durban on Friday, with the visitors unlikely to face more than a few heckles over the incident that rocked the sport eight years ago. The tourists\u2019 efforts to roughen up the ball using sandpaper, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":104054,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104056"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104066,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104056\/revisions\/104066"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}