NEW DELHI: Five-time ODI World Cup champions Australia will travel to South Africa for an eight-match white-ball series in August-September, Cricket Australia announced on Friday.
The tour will include three T20Is and 5 One-day Internationals which will precede the ODI World Cup scheduled in India for October-November.
The T20 fixtures will all be played at Kingsmead in the coastal city of Durban between Aug.30 and Sept. 3. The tour then moves to the Highveld for the five-match ODI series over Sept. 7-17. The first two games will be in Bloemfontein, followed by matches in Potchefstroom, Pretoria and Johannesburg.
It is the first white-ball tour to the country by Australia since 2020 and follows South Africa’s withdrawal from an ODI series in Australia last January, when they prioritised the launch of their domestic T20 league.
Having forfeited that series, South Africa have yet to seal their place at the World Cup in October but will do so if Ireland fail to complete a clean-sweep of their three-match series against Bangladesh, which starts in Chelmsford next week.
If the Irish do book their place at the expense of South Africa, the latter will suffer the embarrassment of having to go through the final round of qualifiers in Zimbabwe next month.
Australia tour to South Africa:
Aug. 30: First T20I – Durban
Sept. 1: Second T20I – Durban
Sept. 3: Third T20I – Durban
Sept. 7: First ODI - Bloemfontein
Sept. 9: Second ODI - Bloemfontein
Sept. 12: Third ODI - Potchefstroom
Sept. 15: Fourth ODI – Pretoria
Sept. 17: Fifth ODI – Johannesburg
(With inputs from Reuters)
