Aussie batter’s shock 10-year Test recall after beating cancer
Updated . First published
Nic Maddinson is on the brink of a stunning comeback 12 months after receiving the all-clear after a battle with testicular cancer and a decade after his last Test appearance.
Maddinson and Sam Harper have been added to the Aussie squad for the South Africa series as both Cameron Green and Josh Inglis, race the injury clock. Inglis will miss the first Test with a broken finger while Green suffered an abominal injury during an ODI on Thursday.
Nic Maddinson has been parachuted into the Australian Test team. Getty Images
Harper, fresh off a century for Australia A against India in the subcontinent, was added as back-up wicketkeeper and batter given Inglis is out.
"Sam gives us wicketkeeping cover as Josh continues his recovery while Nic provides flexibility throughout the batting order," selection boss George Bailey said.
The 34-year-old Maddinson has played just three Tests in his career, all coming in the home summer of 2016. He made his debut against South Africa in Adelaide. He scored 27 runs in four innings, with 22 of them coming in one innings.
In the Blues′ one-day cup opener against Victoria last week, he won man of the match honours after belting a run-a-ball 127 as the Blues notched up a 47-run win via DLS method.
Harper is yet to make his Test debut. He scored a career-best 677 runs in the Sheffield Shield last season. He made scores above 90 in four of his last eight innings.
Maddinson did not play any first-class cricket last summer. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer after finding a tumour in early 2025, and then received news it had spread to parts of his abdominal lymph nodes and lung.
At the same time, his wife Bianca was pregnant with their second child, who was born last September.
Following nine weeks of chemotherapy starting May, he was given the all-clear in October.
The Australian squad is in the grip of an injury crisis following the three-match ODI series against the Proteas.
Inglis broke his finger in the first match, before Jack Edwards and Nathan Ellis picked up their own soft-tissue injuries in the second. Then in the third, Green and Matthew Renshaw also copped injuries.
Scans have since confirmed Green suffered a lower abdominal strain when he tried to belt a Corbin Bosch bouncer into the stands, but only gloved it to Quinton de Kock. Selectors are hopeful Green will be right by the first Test.
Nic Maddinson played three Tests in 2016. Getty
Later, Renshaw was hit on the forearm while fielding after the ball took an awkward bounce off an unused pitch on the edge of the square. Thankfully, he was later cleared of any injury.
Mitch Marsh had earlier been touted as a possible addition to the squad, but he returned to Perth on Thursday for the pending birth of his second child.
Kurtis Patterson was also a potential to get a call-up until he suffered a groin injury playing for NSW in the domestic one-day cup last week.
The first Test begins on next Friday at Kingsmead in Durban.
