Nic's back: The Test recall nobody saw coming

Barely 12 hours after Nic Maddinson's shock call-up to Australia's Test squad, his manager Peter Lovitt was running around the Greg Chappell Cricket Store in North Sydney, a man on a desperate mission.

"Nic needs some back-up pairs of pads and gloves," Lovitt laughed. "We weren't exactly expecting this to happen."

Nor was just about anyone else. Notwithstanding his superb hundred in a one-day game for New South Wales a week ago – his first in any format since March 2024 – Maddinson has hardly been on the lips of anyone discussing potential Test batting prospects for the South Africa series or beyond.

In 2025, the now 34-year-old – who played three Tests in 2016 – faced a harrowing personal journey, undergoing surgery and chemotherapy as he battled testicular cancer, which spread to parts of his abdominal lymph nodes and lung.

Maddinson returned to cricket around 12 months ago, first with his premier cricket club Easts, and then by making 0 and 12 for the NSW Second XI against their Queensland counterparts. Until last month, his only top-level action had come in the form of five Big Bash games for Sydney Thunder in January, with a highest score of 30no.

Yet given what he had been through, he was able to view a mediocre return to action with perspective.

"It's probably as much fun as I've had playing cricket for a long time," he told AAP at the time. "Six months ago, just to be out on the field and playing is something I wasn't sure could happen this quickly.

"It's probably just a different attitude to it all. I just want to play.

"I thought I had a good opportunity at the start of (the 2024-25) summer to try and put my hand up (for Test selection) and it didn't work out. Now it's just about enjoying playing, and whether I've got two years left or five years left, I don't really know. But I'm still loving it, I'm enjoying it as much as I ever have and I'm still looking to improve.

"I think I'm probably better now than what I was 12 or 18 months ago as well. As long as that's happening, I'll keeping looking to play."

The first signs of a shift in fortunes for Maddinson might have been when Cricket NSW appointed Brad Haddin as its new men's head coach in June. A few months later, the gifted left-hander was named red-ball skipper. The decision came as a surprise to many, given Maddinson hasn't been seen in the Sheffield Shield since being dropped from the side for the last round of the 2024-25 season.

According to sources close to the situation, Haddin gave Maddinson – who has in the past resisted the idea of being "micro-managed" by coaches – a slightly extended off-season, and the move paid off; when he returned to Cricket Central in August, he was fitter and stronger than he had perhaps ever been.

In a one-day trial match against Victoria, he blasted 53 from 55 balls, and then, after opening the one-day season with 14 against Queensland, he crashed 126 against the Vics at Junction Oval – a decisive knock in a match in which no-one else reached 50.

In the week that followed, Pat Cummins was quoted suggesting 34-year-old Mitchell Marsh was in the mix for a return to the Test setup; this despite not only Marsh having retired from the Sheffield Shield at the end of last summer, but the fact he hasn't played any first-class cricket since last December.

"I don't want to put words in Mitch's mouth, but I assume that if he's retired from first-class cricket, that he would potentially look at Test cricket retirement also at the end of the season," said Australia head coach Andrew McDonald last December as the Marsh news broke. "I can't speak for him, but that would be my assumption."

Marsh has since insisted he is not retired. But after a series of destructive – though brief – knocks opening the batting in ODIs against Zimbabwe and South Africa, he flew home on Thursday evening, with his wife to give birth to their second child in the coming weeks. On the same day, news came through that Maddinson and Victoria wicketkeeper-batter Sam Harper (who had just hit a hundred for Australia A in India) had been added to the Test squad ahead of next Friday's series opener in Durban.

Maddinson, as a star recruit from New South Wales, enjoyed a brief but very successful union with then Vics head coach McDonald during the 2018-19 summer, with the 26-27-year-old hitting three hundreds in five Shield matches.

Fast forward five years and Maddinson also hit three hundreds from the top of the order in four matches to round out a remarkably impactful six-season stint with Victoria. He returned to his native New South Wales ahead of the 2024-25 season, and with David Warner not long retired, he was being touted as a possible Test opener.

"One of our duties is to continue to produce Australian players," said then Blues coach Greg Shipperd, "and we'll be giving (Maddinson) every single chance to find that avenue into the Australian team."

What followed was the second-leanest Shield summer of Maddinson's career (267 runs at 17.80), although an initially unexplained fatigue was later attributed to the cancer, and would likely have been a mitigating factor in his drop-off in form.

But back to this week. Late Thursday night, Maddinson drove out to Cricket Central in Western Sydney to collect his kitbag, and the following day, he was hurriedly packing bags and organising his passport ahead of a Saturday morning flight to South Africa.

His involvement in the first Test could hinge on Cameron Green's availability – the allrounder has an abdominal strain – with selection chair George Bailey explaining Maddinson "provides flexibility throughout the batting order". Allrounder Cooper Connolly, at least in theory, should remain ahead of him in the pecking order.

Should Maddinson be selected in Baggy Green, it will be a first first-class appearance in 20 months and a first Test in almost 10 years.

Going back further still, day three in Durban would mark exactly 16 years since an 18-year-old Maddinson became the youngest NSW player to score a century on first-class debut.

"We saw how good Nic is," said his skipper Stuart Clark at the time. "He doesn't have a care in the world."

Qantas tour of South Africa 2026

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

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)

South Africa's first Test preliminary squad: 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 (second Test onwards), Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nic Maddinson, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster