White ball World Cups in 2026 and 2027 are the focus of a two-format winter tour to take place across northern Australia as South Africa look to continue developing their next generation.
Match News and Current Form
Australia recently returned home from the Caribbean where they won all five T20Is against the West Indies despite resting each of their ‘big three’ fast bowlers following the 3-0 Test clean sweep. Captain Mitch Marsh couldn’t believe his luck when winning the coin toss on all five occasions but he didn’t challenge his batters by opting to bat first, instead settling into a pattern of five successful run chases.
The Aussies have a 12-1 record in this format since India eliminated them from the 2024 T20 World Cup, despite rarely fielding a full strength side. That included three wins from three at home to Pakistan last summer, which as a result has seen them win four of their last five bilateral T20I series on home soil (losing 2-0 to England in Oct 2022). With Travis Head and Josh Hazlewood being added to the team that recently won 5-0 in the West Indies, they are imposing favourites.
South Africa’s T20I squad is also match-fit after recently finishing runners-up in a tri-series with Zimbabwe and New Zealand last month. They rested about half of their best T20I XI after their participation in South Africa’s World Test Championship final victory over Australia, handing out debuts to Senuran Muthusamy, Corbin Bosch, Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Rubin Hermann.
That experimental side lost all three clashes with New Zealand in that tri-series and as a result have won only one out of five bi- or trilateral T20I series (D1, L3) since their run to the T20 World Cup final in 2024, defeating a hapless Pakistan on home soil. They’re expected to improve significantly in this series having recalled captain Aiden Markram along with Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs and Kagiso Rabada.
Head-to-Head History
Australia dominates the head-to-head ledger 17-8 courtesy of a five-game winning streak between February 2020 and September 2023, the latter of which was a three-game series in South Africa.
The Aussies have a 5-2 record against South Africa on home soil, though the only such meeting since 2014 took place in 2018 (South Africa winning on the Gold Coast by 21 runs).
Hot Stats and Streaks
• Mitchell Marsh will open despite averaging just 16.33 from six innings as a T20I opener
• Cameron Green top scored for Australia twice in their five-game tour of the Caribbean
• Five of South Africa’s last eight opening partnerships were worth 1 or 6 runs
• Ryan Rickelton scored 30+ runs in only two of his 13 T20I innings
Key Players to Watch and Missing Players
Cameron Green was one of Australia’s stars of their 5-0 series win, sealing a World Cup place at number four with four scores of 30+ runs, three of which were half-centuries. Kagiso Rabada will lead South Africa’s attack in this series but his numbers against Australia leave a lot to be desired, with just nine wickets from 35 overs at an average of 33.78.
Australia are still without Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc who continue to be rested. Reeza Hendricks was omitted from South Africa’s squad despite being by far their top scorer of the past 12 months with 440 runs from 15 innings. Gerald Coetzee, Kwena Maphaka, Rubin Hermann and Andile Simelane are the others to miss out.
Betting Analysis
Cameron Green’s over/under runs line of 18.5 seems remarkably low given his recent form and his high position in the batting order. Green over 18.5 runs on Bet365 is too good to turn down.
