McDonald retains faith in Australia's class despite SA loss

Australia and South Africa delivered a series to remember, with both sides having chances to clinch victory. After entering the final Test evenly balanced, the Baggy Greens could not hold on and eventually lost by 176 runs.  

The result is Australia’s first Test series defeat of 2026. Earlier in the year they beat England 4-1 in the Ashes and drew 1-1 with Bangladesh. The loss has also knocked Andrew McDonald’s team off the top spot in the ICC Men’s Test Team Rankings, with South Africa replacing them at the summit. 

Australia also currently sit third in the ICC World Test Championship Standings with a point percentage of 69.23, with only New Zealand (72.22) and South Africa (71.43) above them in the table.

As Australia’s head coach looks ahead to the rest of the 2025-27 World Test Championship cycle, he recognises the top quality still in his team, as well as some areas for improvement.

“It’s still a very good cricket team with a lot of very good players in there,” McDonald told Cricinfo following the series.

“Some legends of the game, or down the path, they will be acknowledged as legends of the game. So we’ve got to balance that out with who comes in, what the next decisions are.

“The challenge is always greater when you play away in foreign conditions and you get challenged in different ways.

“There’s a reason why a lot of teams don’t win on the road. It is difficult and it’s not an excuse. We felt as though we were good enough to come here and win this series.

“But we’re always going to have decisions to make, in particular around the age profile of our team. We’re probably asking ourselves the same questions as you guys are.”

McDonald also spoke about the success his batters found in the series. Despite the result, several performances stood out. Matt Renshaw led the scoring with 369 runs across the three Tests, and Josh Inglis returned from injury with an emphatic 102 in the third Test.

“If you looked at the batting unit, I think we walk away in a stronger position with Green, [although] it was an injury that curtailed it early in the series [for him]. But for Inglis to get that opportunity, he’s got two away Test hundreds and we know how difficult it is to play away.”

Australia’s head coach also commented on Marnus Labuschagne’s struggles against South Africa. He defended the batter but said his place may need to be reassessed before the home summer begins for the Baggy Greens.

“We believed in Marnus for this tour. We’ll have to reassess that as we move forward. Others will sit there and say what that means for him.

“There’ll be a lot of speculation. There’s still a very good cricketer there. Every time he drops back to state level, he outperforms the others.

“He’s had some opportunities that he’s missed on this tour in particular, so that’ll be something in the next week or so that we’ll get our heads around. We’re not in a rush to make decisions. There’s too much emotion. But, as I said, he hasn’t taken his opportunity on this tour.”

Australia’s next Tests are a four-match home series against New Zealand, starting in Perth on 9 December. McDonald will look to use it to return the team to the form that made them the top-ranked Test side in the world.

Series Results 

First Test: Australia won by 214 runs 

Second Test: South Africa won by an innings and 31 runs 

Third Test: South Africa won by 176 runs