Australia suffer major setback as star allrounder gets ruled out of Test series opener against South Africa

Australia's star allrounder Cameron Green has been ruled out of the opening Test of the three-match series against South Africa at Kingsmead in Durban, which begins on Friday. Green sustained an abdominal injury while batting in the third ODI against South Africa at Senwes Park in Potchefstroom and subsequently missed Australia's two-day warm-up match.

Australia head coach Andrew McDonald remains hopeful that Green will feature later in the series.

"He's progressing pretty well, all things considered, on the back of the injury he suffered to his abdominals," McDonald was quoted as saying by Cricket.com.au.

"He's still here for a reason, so there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

"It'll just be a matter of working through his rehab. He's got a pretty demanding week ahead as he gradually reintroduces a few activities. It's a bit of an unknown at this stage, but there's still optimism that he'll take part in the series at some point."

Australia are ranked No. 1 in the ongoing ICC World Test Championship 2025-27 points table, whereas the Proteas are second.

South Africa preliminary squad for the first Test:

Temba Bavuma (c), Marques Ackerman, David Bedingham, Corbin Bosch, Gerald Coetzee, Tony de Zorzi, Simon Harmer, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Senuran Muthusamy, Anrich Nortje, Dane Paterson, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, Kyle Verreynne.

Australia Test squad:

Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Cameron Green, Sam Harper, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (from the second Test onwards), Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nic Maddinson, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc and Beau Webster.

South Africa vs Australia Tests: