Australia s Test tour of South Africa has been postponed due to fears over the coronavirus,
Cricket Australia (CA) confirmed on Tuesday.
The Baggy Greens were scheduled to play a three-Test series in South Africa later this month but CA s interim chief executive
Nick Hockley said travelling to the country posed unacceptable risk to the touring party.
South Africa is battling a second wave of Covid-19. Due to the public health situation in South Africa, which includes a second wave and a new variant of the virus, and following extensive due diligence with medical experts, it has become clear that traveling from Australia to South Africa at this current time poses an unacceptable level of health and safety risk to our players, support staff and the community, Hockley said in a statement.
Australia have named five uncapped players in their 19-man squad for the three-match Test series in South Africa starting next month, with middle-order batter Matthew Wade the most significant casualty of the recent loss to India.
Australia Test squad for Qantas Tour of South Africa: Tim Paine (c), Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Will Pucovski, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mark Steketee, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner.
Wade played all four matches of the Vodafone Series that India won 2-1 – two of them as an interim opener with David Warner absent through injury – but his return of 173 runs from eight innings at an average of 21.62 meant he was under pressure to retain his place.