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For Australian cricket, there is no venue where history cannot be made more emotionally charged than in South Africa. The tourists will return to the region in October for a three-Test series after the farce of the ball-tampering scandal in Cape Town in 2018. Pat Cummins has signaled that he needs to focus on red ball before white ball this year.

Pat Cummins Managing the White-Ball Workload

After a tightly fought two-test series with Bangladesh, Australia's attention turns to six one-day internationals (ODIs) – three in Zimbabwe and three in South Africa in late September. But Cummins sees these limited-over matches as a means to an end.

Pat Cummins has played just two of Australia's 28 ODIs since winning the 2023 World Cup, and he's hoping to remain a peripheral figure in the shorter format. “I'm not sure if I should say this, but I feel they're just about getting ready for the tests,” he said after an innings win of 51 runs over Bangladesh at Mackay.

“So a lot of the white-ball stuff and how we play that would be with an eye on the red ball. I'd imagine it'd be one, two, maybe a maximum of three games out of the six.”

Mitchell Starc and Hazlewood will be following a similar approach as the pace trio rotates in Australia's bid to manage workload through the red ball season.

Settling Old Scores With Tests in South Africa

This is a series steeped in rivalry, but with a new twist. After the disappointment of the 2018 drawn series, South Africa have enjoyed revenge in recent years, beating Australia in the World Test Championship final at Lord's last year.

Australia may have won the 2022-23 home series 2-0, but it's one thing playing the Proteas at home and quite another facing them in their own backyard.

“We've played in some pretty different conditions in South Africa,” said Pat Cummins, with only six players in Australia's current squad having experience of playing Test cricket in the country. “Even from Durban to, say, Cape Town, that's two very different-looking grounds. I love Test cricket because it's all about those unique challenges presented by different conditions, opponents, and locations. Can't wait to get back to it.”

Selection headaches for Australia as they look to build momentum in the Test series against South Africa. Batting headaches also loom large as Australia looks to build momentum in a demanding Test series against South Africa. Matt Renshaw retained his place in the Australia team after a low-scoring first test in his first appearance in three years, while captain Usman Khosa was under pressure from the crowd.

But Marnus Labuschagne has failed to fire in any of his three innings in Mackay and has been unable to score a century in test cricket since 2023.

Pat Cummins had no hesitation when asked about his batting partner's chances of retaining his position in the team.

“He's been batting fantastically well off the field,” Cummins said. “But it doesn't mean much. You've got to convert that into runs out there.”

As Australia looks ahead to six ODIs as a warm-up for the test series, Cummins will be hoping to leave nothing to chance as he looks to prepare himself for the challenge of facing South Africa.