South Africa’s women will not be short of high-profile opposition next season. India arrive in December, Australia follow in March, and – unusually for the women’s schedule – each tour contains a Test as well as white-ball cricket.
First, the basics. India’s visit opens with three ICC Women’s Championship one-dayers, starting in Potchefstroom on 9 December, then heading to Bloemfontein and finally Newlands. Championship points are at stake, so those matches matter beyond the immediate result. After that the sides shift format – a single four-day Test at St George’s Park, Gqeberha, from 20-23 December. It will be only the fourth women’s Test between the teams; India have won the previous three, the last of them in 2024. Awkwardly, the fixture overlaps with the first men’s Test against England up in Johannesburg – ground staff and broadcasters may be earning their Christmas break.
Australia’s trip is bigger again: three T20Is, three ODIs and another Test. The T20s kick off in Kimberley on 18 March, before moving east to Benoni and KuGompo (East London). The 50-over leg starts in Gqeberha on 27 March, shifts to Paarl four days later and finishes in Durban on 3 April — that Durban match doubling as the annual Black Day ODI, raising awareness of gender-based violence. A week later the teams re-assemble at JB Marks Oval, Potchefstroom, for a four-day Test (8-11 April). Only once before have South Africa’s women played Australia over the longer format – Perth 2024, when the hosts won by an innings and 284. The Proteas will not need reminding.
For Australia this is, remarkably, a first full bilateral tour of South Africa. An earlier visit in 2020 never got off the ground because Covid intervened.
Cricket South Africa’s chief executive Pholetsi Moseki welcomed the double-header: “We are delighted to host two of the world’s leading teams in India and Australia for what promises to be a blockbuster home summer for the Proteas Women,” he said. “These tours will showcase the very best of international women’s cricket and build on the encouraging rise in fan attendance, as we continue to welcome growing crowds across the country to watch world-class players competing at some of our iconic venues.”
A quick bit of context for anyone dipping in: the ICC Women’s Championship is the qualification route for the 2029 World Cup, so every ODI result feeds directly into the bigger picture. The Tests, by contrast, sit outside any league structure; prestige and player development are the main currencies there.
Fixtures at a glance (dates 2026–27 season)
India: ODIs 9, 13, 16 Dec; Test 20–23 Dec
Australia: T20Is 18, 21, 23 Mar; ODIs 27 Mar, 31 Mar, 3 Apr; Test 8–11 Apr
Plenty, then, for South African supporters to mark in the diary – and, one hopes, plenty of runs, wickets and gripping cricket to reward them when they turn up.
