Matthew Renshaw’s career has always seemed to run parallel to his contemporaries’, the tracks of their journeys distant and only occasionally crossing over. But on the opener’s return to Africa, for the first time since one such convergence eight years ago, their paths might finally become more permanently entwined.

Renshaw’s experience of the ill-fated 2018 South Africa tour was as bizarre as it was brief. At the tail-end of a summer that had begun with his first Test axing, Australia selector Trevor Hohns told Renshaw on the final morning of the Sheffield Shield final he was going to Johannesburg to shore up a squad ravaged by the ball-tampering scandal. He would need to depart Allan Border Field by tea to make his flight from Brisbane airport.

“I was like, ‘Well, we’re in the middle of a Shield final – I could be batting. What happens then?'” Renshaw recalled telling Hohns. As it turned out, he was putting the pads on tea, right before he would make light work of a modest fourth-innings chase. He was pushed to a later flight, enough time to savour the title, however fleetingly. “And then it was just press conference, airport, plane – Brisbane to Dubai, Dubai to Johannesburg.”

Renshaw clubs 81 en route to South Africa

One of the men he was replacing, deposed captain Steve Smith, was going the other way at the airport amid a frenzy of reporters and cameras. Renshaw remembers teammates enquiring whether he had witnessed Smith, flanked by police, getting “bombarded” as he walked through the terminal. He had not: “I just walked through and got my bags,” Renshaw said. “No one said anything to me.”

Like ships in the night they passed, and the ensuing long-term bans of three of Australia’s top four looked to have Renshaw primed to seize back a spot after his initial Test stint failed to last a full 12 months. Only, Renshaw was curiously absent from Australia’s redemption arc. Bar that one-off Test at the Wanderers where he scored single digits in each innings, the entire Tim Paine-captaincy era passed him by and so did most of the early Pat Cummins years too, a long international absence punctuated only a run of two-and-a-half Tests in early-2023, during which he again failed to reach double figures.

Renshaw celebrates after hitting the winning runs to beat Tasmania in the 2017-18 Sheffield Shield final // Getty

Renshaw has previously spoken about his mental health challenges around the time he lost his Queensland spot six years ago, as well as an ensuing career-turning middle-order dalliance in the Sheffield Shield, both of which helped add layers to a skillset once deemed one of Australian cricket’s most promising. More recently, his emergence as a white-ball regular has, in his view, aided his red-ball batting.

“The freedom that I play one-day cricket with … sort of trying to translate that into Shield cricket and red-ball cricket in general,” he said ahead of flying out for Harare for the first of six ODIs in Zimbabwe and South Africa that precede next month’s three-Test series against the Proteas.

“It’s something that we’ve spoken about with the (Australia) coaches – and the Queensland coaches as well – just about when I’m at my best, it’s nice and positive. It’s still respecting the ball, but when my body’s moving, I don’t talk too much about technique. It’s more feel … (opposed) to what my technique’s doing.”

Only now does an international career that commenced with a Test hundred before he had turned 21 (Phillip Hughes is the only other Australian to do that in the past 60 years) look to be back on its projected trajectory. So far in 2026, no other Australian has played more international matches than Renshaw’s 16 (Cameron Green has featured in the same number). His recall for Australia’s second Test against Bangladesh in Mackay saw him become an incumbent in all three formats, at a time when crossing between them is seen as more difficult than ever.

Renshaw played his first Test since 2023 against Bangladesh in Mackay // Getty

Speaking last month when Renshaw won back his Test spot, Pat Cummins observed a change. “Some of the chat about ‘Renners’ in the past is it can look different from day to day,” said Cummins. “When you get to the back half of your career as a batter, you want to really know what you look like at your best, and I think he does that.”

A more even-keeled demeanour is no guarantee of success, of course. At the central Queensland ground where he had scored centuries in his previous two first-class games, Renshaw pushed too hard at a tailing Shoriful Islam delivery and edged to the cordon. “Mackay was a great example that my feet were probably moving a bit more than I wanted,” he said.

“But I knew the feeling of nerves, excitement, being back in Test cricket – I knew that that might happen, so I sort of accepted it. I knew that my beans were going to be going a bit more. As long as I get my body moving where I want to, I think that’s the most important thing. I try not to get too caught up in all the technique and all that sort of ‘mind thinking’ because I’ve been there in the past.”

And there are tentative signs his more measured self-analysis is helping solve problems on the fly. In 50-over matches against Pakistan and Bangladesh earlier this year, Renshaw went on a puzzling run of low scores – making 4, 2, 0 and 0 in the space of 10 days – which came amid otherwise promising limited-overs form since making his ODI and T20I debuts in the past 12 months. “I got a little bit too focused on technique and where my feet were going specifically,” he said, “and I think that just took me away from my strength, which is just playing the ball and reacting.” He capped that subcontinental tour by spanking a match-winning 89no from only 52 balls in the second T20I against Bangladesh.

Big hitting Renshaw smashes new T20I best for Australia

It is clear the Renshaw who faces up to South Africa’s fearsome pace brigade in Durban will be a vastly different proposition to the Renshaw who was jetted over the Indian Ocean to answer Australia’s SOS close to a decade ago, a time that, by his reckoning, simultaneously feels “so long ago” and “like yesterday”.

“I live by (the mantra), ‘There’s always something magic around the corner’,” Renshaw said. “If you keep doing all the routines and processes, then nine times out of 10, you’re going to score runs eventually. And you’ve just got to trust that.”

Qantas tour of South Africa 2026

All matches to be broadcast exclusively in Australia on Kayo and Fox Cricket

First ODI: September 24, Kingsmead Stadium, Durban, 6pm AEST (10am local)

Second ODI: September 27, Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, 6pm AEST (10am local)

Third ODI: September 30, JB Marks Oval, Potchefstroom, 9:30pm AEST (D/N, 1:30pm local)

South Africa ODI squad: Temba Bavuma (c), Ottneil Baartman, Corbin Bosch, Matthew Breetzke, Gerald Coetzee, Quinton de Kock, Tony de Zorzi, Bjorn Fortuin, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kwena Maphaka, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs

Australia ODI squad: Mitchell Marsh, Pat Cummins, Xavier Bartlett, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Joel Davies, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Spencer Johnson, Oliver Peake, Matthew Renshaw, Billy Stanlake, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa

Warm-up match: October 3-4, JB Marks Oval, Potchefstroom, 6pm AEST (10am local)

First Test: October 9-13, Kingsmead Stadium, Durban, 6:30pm AEDT (9:30am local)

Second Test: October 18-22, St George’s Park, Gqeberha, 7pm AEDT (10am local)

Third Test: October 27-31, Newlands, Cape Town, 7:30pm AEDT (10:30am local)

Australia Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster