{"id":932421,"date":"2026-10-18T09:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T09:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/932421\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T09:00:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T09:00:18","slug":"australia-makes-huge-selection-call-as-rain-delays-play-in-the-second-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/932421\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia makes huge selection call as rain delays play in the Second Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian captain Pat Cummins has won the toss once again and chosen to bowl under grey skies for the Second Test against South Africa in Gqeberha.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, with the ball and pitch expected to give plenty of assistance to the bowlers on the first morning, play has been delayed due to wet weather.<\/p>\n

The Australian selectors have made just one change from the side that won the first Test in Durban, with Scott Boland coming in for veteran off-spinner Nathan Lyon and Nic Maddinson set to open the batting once again with Travis Head.<\/p>\n

\u201cPartly conditions,\u201d Cummins explained of the controversial decision to leave Lyon out.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Pat Cummins admits small Durban crowds suited Aussies<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cScotty has been incredible whenever he\u2019s played for us, when there\u2019s anything in the wicket he gets a lot of seam movement, and he\u2019s super accurate,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Critically, winning the toss and sending South Africa in means Australia won\u2019t have to bowl last without a specialist spinner, while it will also keep recalled South African danger man Kagiso Rabada away from the new ball on the opening morning.<\/p>\n

Speaking on\u00a0Fox Cricket before play, Australia\u2019s Steve Smith said the Gqeberha pitch had plenty of grass and was a bit damp, declaring it could be \u2018tricky for the batters early doors\u2019.<\/p>\n

With rain falling and the covers on the wicket, it\u2019s unclear when play will begin.<\/p>\n

Australia XI for Second Test vs. South Africa:<\/p>\n

Travis Head, Nic Maddinson, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Matt Renshaw, Alex Carey (wk), Beau Webster, Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland, Josh Hazlewood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian captain Pat Cummins has won the toss once again and chosen to bowl under grey skies for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":932422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-932421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}