A week ago, Nic Maddinson was running around his Byron Bay home picking up his Baggy Green and passport after the most unexpected of phone calls from chair of selectors George Bailey.
On Friday at Kingsmead, he walked out to open the batting alongside Travis Head to complete an extraordinary return to Test cricket after a gap of nearly 10 years, which more recently included a battle with cancer, leaving him without a first-class game of cricket in 19 months.
The human side of the Maddinson story has been a central theme of the last few days, and nothing that has transpired takes anything away from that. But once he was called up, and especially when he was named in the XI and tasked with facing the new ball, his return has to be judged under the harsh lens elite professional sport.
So far it's a sample size of one, which is not enough for a fair conclusion, whatever the inevitable reaction will be over the coming hours. There are, though, valid broader questions over how and why the selection has happened in the first place. Was Maddinson even given a fair chance to succeed?
The first innings back was a tough watch. Maddinson took the initial strike rather than sitting on his bat at the non-striker's end and the first ball he received from Marco Jansen was short of a length into his hip, deflecting past the keeper for four leg byes.
There was enough early movement to make opening a challenge, even if Jansen wasn't always on target. As Maddinson's dot-ball count climbed, he received a huge moment of fortune on his 15th delivery when Wiaan Mulder shaped one into his pads. It was given not-out on the field and South Africa declined to review; if they had, it was three reds.
Against his 19th delivery, Maddinson failed to connect with a flash outside off stump. By the end of the fifth over, he was scoreless from 21 deliveries. At the end of the sixth, he scurried a leg bye. Then he negotiated another maiden against Jansen: 29 dot balls.
He saw his senior opening partner (at least in Test terms), Head, glance one down the leg side against Mulder which, this time, South Africa correctly reviewed. The new batter, Marnus Labuschagne, was off the mark first ball when Mulder slipped into the pads and was glanced to fine leg. How Maddinson must have wished for that.
His dot-ball tally reached 30 when he was beaten again by Jansen. Soon, it all became too much. Looking to cut a delivery that was too close, he dragged into his off stump which was sent cartwheeling out of the ground. He threw his head back in disappointment. It was the longest Test duck by an Australia opener.
But, and with no slight on Maddinson, should it really come as a surprise? Two List A innings in late September, following four BBL appearances for Sydney Thunder last summer as he returned from illness, are the sum total of his innings at professional level since March 2025, even if the second of those one-day games brought 126 against a good Victoria attack.
After arriving in South Africa, Maddinson spoke about the work he had done in previous years not suddenly becoming irrelevant. But the 2018-2024 period where he averaged over 50 in the Sheffield Shield was some time ago even if the gap in his resume was out of his control. If he'd been picked in 2024, in place of some of the other openers tried post-David Warner, there would still have been a good debate but with a weight of runs behind him. However, a lean start to the 2024-25 season after moving back to New South Wales came at a bad time.
Now his recall has further shone light on Australia's batting stocks. After the defeat against Bangladesh in Darwin there was a call from a number of former players to rejuvenate the batting line-up with some youth, even given the daunting challenge ahead of this South Africa tour. Instead the selectors opted to replace Jake Weatherald with Matt Renshaw, who after one match finds himself in the middle order instead of opening. There is now a knock-on effect to another player who has just returned to the Test fold.
"The usual worry is that young players get burnt," Greg Chappell wrote in a column for Nine newspapers on the morning of the first Test. "Some will. But a home series against Bangladesh is the cheapest place to find out, and a dropped player can come back.
"Maddinson's recall proves that. Australia missed a golden chance to blood one or two young batters with genuine futures. By declining, the selectors drove deeper into a cul-de-sac that will be harder to get out of when the change has to come. It's also best to bring young batters in while Steve Smith is still in the side, so they can learn from a master."
Maddinson could yet be able to turn around this tough start, in which case the selectors may be spared more difficult questions, but right now the jury remains out on one of the most left-field calls in Australian cricket history.