Source : ABC NEWS
The members of Australia’s touring party from the 2018 South Africa series have endured various fortunes in the eight years since.
Some have seen their careers go to new heights, while others struggled to recapture their form from before the ball-tampering saga.
Others never featured for Australia again.
As Australia plays its first Test in South Africa since 2018, here is a look at where everyone from the previous tour ended up in the years that followed.
Steve Smith
Steve Smith is no longer Australia’s Test captain, nor is he at the peak of his powers, but he still remains the best batter in the team. (Getty Images: Gareth Copley)
It is somewhat of an indictment on where Australian cricket has gone since the last South Africa tour that Smith is still by far the team’s best batter.
Although, a glass-half-full view might suggest that it is a sign of Smith’s incredible longevity.
While he is not at the peak of his powers like he was on the last tour, Smith is still the trump card in the line-up and will be the wicket South Africa’s bowlers most covet.
Smith has retired from all white ball formats and is primarily a Test cricketer at the international level.
David Warner
David Warner was not quite able to recapture his best form at the Test level following his suspension in 2018. (AAP: Dave Hunt)
Arguably Australia’s main antagonist in 2018, Warner last represented Australia at the T20 World Cup in mid-2024.
Following his ball-tampering suspension, Warner never quite recaptured his form, particularly in the Test format.
Warner averaged 48.63 in Tests prior to the 2018 South Africa tour and finished his career averaging 37.28 in 38 Tests afterwards.
He is now a T20 gun for hire in various competitions around the world.
Cameron Bancroft
Cameron Bancroft (left) famously fronted the press conference alongside Smith where Australia admitted to tampering with the ball using a piece of sandpaper. (Getty Images: Gallo Images/Ashley Vlotman)
Bancroft’s international career suffered the most out of the three players banned from the 2018 tour, having been the man caught by the Supersport cameras trying to hide a piece of sandpaper from the umpires.
The right-hander has played just two Tests since. The last of those came in 2019, and his Test career looks just about done.
Still just 33, Bancroft remains a prolific domestic run scorer, and ranked third in terms of runs in the Sheffield Shield last year. He has 33 first class centuries to his name.
Joe Burns
Joe Burns enjoyed a few more years of Test cricket for Australia before going on to represent Italy. (Getty Images: Jason McCawley)
Burns was one of the players drafted into the Australian XI for the final Test in 2018 after the suspensions of Smith, Warner and Bancroft.
He enjoyed a productive 2019 at the Test level before playing the last of his Tests for Australia on Boxing Day in 2020.
Burns later became a T20 specialist for Italy, averaging 45.16 in eight matches across 2024 and 2025 to help the Italians qualify for their maiden T20 World Cup this year, but was left out of Italy’s World Cup squad.
Pat Cummins
Pat Cummins has gone on to captain Australia in multiple formats since the 2018 series, where he was only just returning from a series of back issues. (Getty Images: Robert Cianflone)
Cummins’s Test career was in its infancy in 2018, having just returned to the side following years of injury issues.
Since then he has become one of the finest all-format bowlers as well as Australia captain.
Under Cummins’s tenure, Australia has won an ODI World Cup and the ICC Test Championship, both in 2023.
He has been named in the Test Team of the Year on four occasions, and was named Test Cricketer of the Year in 2019.
Peter Handscomb
Peter Handscomb has played fleetingly in Australia’s Test side since 2018, and is seen as somewhat of a spin specialist. (Getty Images: Robert Cianflone)
Another player who came in for the final Test in 2018, Handscomb has forever been on the periphery of Australia’s Test side.
Handscomb was famously the man who told the Australian team that they’d been caught ball tampering, after chatting to then-coach Darren Lehmann on a walkie-talkie while flipping an Aussie rules football in between his hands.
Considered a specialist in spinning conditions, Handscomb has added just seven Tests to his career since the 2018 series, but is an outside chance to feature again in India next year after recently being added to the Australia A side.
He was the leading scorer in the last Shield season, scoring 724 runs at an average of 34.47 in very bowler-friendly conditions.
Josh Hazlewood
Josh Hazlewood is one of the few Australians who has seen his career have an uptick following the 2018 South Africa tour. (Getty Images: Robert Cianflone)
Hazlewood enjoyed some of his best years as a Test bowler following the 2018 tour.
The right-arm paceman averaged 25.77 with the ball prior to that series and has seen that average dip to an elite 21.17 in the years that have followed.
Hazlewood is still prolific when he is able to get on the park, but his body has given him problems over the last few seasons.
The 35-year-old was restricted to just four Tests last year, but still took 16 wickets at an average of 17.93.
Jon Holland
Jon Holland played just two Tests for Australia after not featuring at all during the 2018 South Africa tour. (Getty Images: Francois Nel)
Holland was one of the players who didn’t play a single Test during the last South Africa tour, and has mostly remained on the outer since.
His two Test appearances following the 2018 tour yielded just four wickets at an average of 75, and he was unsurprisingly surpassed in the spin pecking order.
Nevertheless, Holland continued to enjoy his time in domestic cricket, helping Victoria claim a Sheffield Shield title in 2018–19.
Holland’s first class career ended in 2023 when he was let go by Victoria after 95 Shield appearances.
Usman Khawaja
Usman Khawaja completely reinvented his Test career as a prolific opener before retiring from international cricket at the start of this year. (Getty Images: Gareth Copley)
Khawaja played all four Tests as Australia’s number three in 2018, but his struggles in that series were no indicator of what was to come.
After being left out of the Test side in 2020 and 2021, Khawaja returned for the New Year’s Test in 2022 and had an incredible stint as one of Australia’s openers.
Khawaja scored eight of his 16 Test centuries after his return in 2022 and averaged 48.05 as an opener, one of the best marks by an Australian.
He retired from Test cricket following Australia’s Ashes triumph against England last summer and is now a T20 specialist for domestic leagues after also retiring from Shield cricket.
Nathan Lyon
Nathan Lyon still has a stranglehold on the sole spinner spot in Australia’s full-strength Test XI. (Getty Images: Cricket Australia/Albert Perez)
Lyon remains a mainstay in Australia’s first-choice Test XI, just as he was in 2018.
Despite being the oldest player in Australia’s team, no spinner has been able to claim Lyon’s spot as the non-pace bowling option alongside Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins.
Lyon’s body has slowly begun to show signs of aging in the past few years, and he played just two of the five Tests against England in last summer’s Ashes.
His performances in the Bangladesh Tests suggest he won’t be an automatic selection in South Africa.
Mitch Marsh
Mitch Marsh retired from Test cricket after last featuring in the 2024 Boxing Day Test, but is now Australia’s T20 captain. (Getty Images: Chris Hyde)
Marsh played all four Tests against South Africa in 2018, but struggled to kick on from that series in the years that followed. He was the man with the ball in hand when the ball-tampering storm erupted.
He had a strong 2023, scoring a century and four 50s to end the calendar year with an average of 67.50, but managed an average of just 18.86 the following year and saw his Test career come to an end after Boxing Day.
Marsh has since retired from Test cricket but remains in Australia’s ODI and T20 sides, captaining the country in the shortest format.
His name gets mentioned with regards to a Test return every once in a while, but that ship appears to have sailed with Australia well-stocked with all-rounder options.
Shaun Marsh
Shaun Marsh did not feature again in Australia’s Test XI once Smith and Warner returned from their suspensions. (AAP Image: Dan Himbrechts)
The other Marsh brother also played all four Tests in the 2018 series, but struggled thereafter.
Marsh was relied upon heavily during the suspensions to Smith, Warner and Bancroft, but did not play another Test once the trio were cleared to return.
He played his last first class match in 2023 and his last T20 in the BBL at the end of 2024.
Marsh is one of 10 former international cricketers involved in the CLT10, India’s first luxury-format indoor cricket league.
Glenn Maxwell
Despite being a key member of Australia’s white ball teams, Glenn Maxwell never played another Test match after 2017. (Getty Images: Robert Cianflone)
Maxwell has not played a single Test since 2017 but remains a white ball superstar.
He played a key role in Australia’s T20 World Cup and ODI World Cup wins, in 2021 and 2023 respectively.
He retired from ODIs in 2025 but still plays for Australia in the T20 format and is considered one of the most dangerous short-form players in the world.
With less international cricket on his plate, Maxwell is a gun for hire for domestic T20 leagues around the world.
Tim Paine
Tim Paine captained Australia after the ball-tampering scandal, before being forced to resign under controversial circumstances himself. (Getty: Ryan Pierse)
Paine was thrust into centre stage following the sandpaper debacle on the 2018 tour, captaining Australia in the final Test of the series in Smith and Warner’s absence.
The Tasmanian keeper retained the captaincy even when Smith returned, and eventually led his country in 23 Tests.
Paine’s reign as captain came to an end when he resigned in November 2021 after explicit messages he’d sent to a co-worker in 2017 resurfaced.
He ended his playing career at all levels in 2023 and took up coaching. Currently he is the head coach of Pakistan Super League side Multan Sultans.
Matt Renshaw
Matt Renshaw has only recently returned to Australia’s Test side after spending years in the wilderness. (Getty Images: Robert Cianflone)
Renshaw was among those drafted into the Australian side for the final Test of the 2018 series in Johannesburg.
He played three more Tests in 2023, including one against South Africa, but managed just nine runs in four innings.
Renshaw received a Test recall earlier this year against Bangladesh, but managed just eight in his sole innings at the crease.
The left-hander has been most effective for Australia at the T20 level, where he averages 38.83 at a healthy strike rate of 125.94.
Jhye Richardson
Jhye Richardson’s body has stopped him from enjoying the Test career many believed he was destined to have. (Getty Images: Gareth Copley)
Richardson has been the nearly man of his generation of Australian cricketers.
He did not feature in the 2018 Tests, but made his debut the following year, shining with six wickets in two Tests.
However, repeated injury issues halted his once-bright career, allowing him to play just two Tests in the last seven years.
He currently features in Australia A’s Tests against India A. If his body holds up, he should be back in Test calculations in the not too distant future.
Chadd Sayers
Chadd Sayers’s one Test appearance came during the final Test of the 2018 South Africa series. (Getty Images: Lee Warren)
Sayers was another one of Australia’s inclusions for the Johannesburg Test in 2018, and it wound up being the only Test he would ever play.
A prolific Shield performer in the lead-up to the South Africa series, a knee injury ruined his 2018–19 season.
Sayers continued to play for South Australia and eventually retired from first class cricket at the end of the 2020–21 season.
Following his retirement, Sayers spent some time as a runner for SANFL side Woodville-West Torrens.
Mitchell Starc
Mitchell Starc remains the spearhead of Australia’s bowling attack despite approaching 37 years of age. (Getty Images: Albert Perez)
Starc’s career has gone from strength to strength since 2018, and he remains one of the most feared new ball bowlers in world cricket.
Nearly 37, Starc is as fast as ever and remains an integral part of Australia’s Test line-up.
At the end of the 2018 series, Starc had taken 182 wickets at an average of 28.17 in 43 Tests.
Since then, he has taken a further 263 wickets at an average of 24.70 in 64 Tests, and his career mark of 445 Test wickets is the most by any left-arm bowler.
