Australia’s bizarre selection choices backfired – predictably – in South Africa. It’s time for a reality check

The team’s management needs to offer decisions that make sense, rather than spurious justifications for ones that don’t No homecoming for the Australian Test team will ever be as hostile as the aftermath of the sandpaper debacle in 2018, but the team making the equivalent trip from South Africa in 2026 will still find that some knives are out. Having led 1-0 after Durban, reversing a trend of poor starts, the side managed to surrender the series across the next two contests, bowled out for 99 in Gqeberha and 111 in Cape Town .