Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne may have one innings to save his place as the tourists’ poor run continues in South Africa. The series is level at 1-1 after South Africa won the second Test by an innings and 31 runs in Gqeberha, and Steve Smith faces a late fitness test ahead of the winner-takes-all third Test in Cape Town, which starts at 8am on Tuesday.
Australia are about to play a Test in Cape Town for the first time since the ball-tampering scandal of 2018 that halted the careers of several of their cricketers. If they lose the series decider, more careers could be ended.
Humbled in Gqeberha, where they were bowled out for 99 in the first innings, the Baggy Greens need a strong response. If it does not come, the reaction from the Australian media could be harsher than the piece of sandpaper Cameron Bancroft tried to hide down his trousers eight years ago.
Batting under pressure
The batting has been creaking for some time. In the 4-1 Ashes thrashing of England last winter, Travis Head, Steve Smith and Alex Carey held the line while others struggled. In South Africa so far, the tourists have managed only three individual fifty-plus scores: one for Head and two for Matt Renshaw.
Without Head in Durban, things would have been even worse. His second-innings 121 was 81 more runs than the next-highest score by an Australian in that game.
Even Smith has stuttered. He received a ban for his role as captain in the 2018 “Sandpapergate” scandal, along with Bancroft and David Warner. In this series he has passed 20 three times but has not gone on to a big score, and he was hampered by a neck problem in Gqeberha. If he fails his fitness test, it could help Labuschagne’s hopes of keeping his place.
Labuschagne and the selectors in the spotlight
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting described Labuschagne’s position as “untenable” after a lean return at home to Bangladesh left him without a Test century in 43 innings, stretching back to the 2023 Ashes in England. That run has now reached 47 innings.
Labuschagne has started well in South Africa, the country of his birth, reaching the 30s in three of his four outings. However, he has not converted those starts. He was pinned lbw, sliced a shot to cover, was 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 he misses out this week, his Test career could be finished. If he plays and fails, the story could be similar. If Australia fail as a team, pressure may grow on head selector George Bailey. Former skipper Steve Waugh said before the Ashes that Bailey had previously shown a lack of “appetite” for making the big calls, and Matthew Hayden criticised the selection of Nic Maddinson for the South Africa tour at the time.
Maddinson’s exit exposes a bigger problem
Maddinson, 34, had not played a first-class match since March 2025 because of a testicular cancer diagnosis, and he averaged 6.75 from his first three Tests back in 2016. Hayden accused the selectors of “disrespecting first-class cricket” and “promoting the greatest pile of mediocrity that we’ve seen in a generation of cricket.”
Maddinson has not been even mediocre in this series. He averages 14 after scoring 56 runs from four innings, 48 of which came in a single knock that followed a 33-ball duck, a four-ball duck and a 10-ball eight. He has since been released from the squad, and Renshaw is poised to open alongside Head in Cape Town.
Many fans wanted Maddinson to succeed given what he had been through, but he did not. 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 problem is that Australia no longer have the depth they once did. In earlier eras, they had players averaging over 40 and scoring heavily in domestic cricket, often in English county cricket as well as at home, waiting in the wings. Every prospect mentioned above averages in the mid-30s or lower in first-class cricket.
Bavuma’s record as captain
South Africa, by contrast, have a near-guaranteed source of runs in captain Temba Bavuma. His brilliant 179 from 334 balls in Gqeberha means he averages 49.95 across his last 28 Tests. That innings came after he walked in with the score at 12-2.
He was still at the crease when the Proteas slumped to 110-6, and he went on to lead them to 425-9. He was then left to celebrate a 12th win in 14 Tests as captain. A 13th win from 15 looks within reach unless Australia can produce something special in Cape Town.