Darwin Hosts a Test for the First Time Since 2004
Australia and Bangladesh open a two Test series at Marrara Stadium on 13 August, and Mackay becomes the twelfth Australian venue to hold a Test nine days later. Neither ground appears anywhere in our records, because neither has staged one in the period our data covers.
Australia play Bangladesh at Marrara Stadium in Darwin from 13 to 17 August, and at the Great Barrier Reef Arena in Mackay from 22 to 26 August. Both Tests start at 10am local time and both count towards the 2025 to 2027 World Test Championship.
Two things about that make it unusual.
Darwin has not hosted a Test since 2004, when Sri Lanka visited. Mackay has never hosted one at all, and becomes the twelfth Australian venue to do so.
And Bangladesh have not toured Australia for a Test series since 2003, which is longer than several of their squad have been playing senior cricket.
What our own records say
Our Test archive covers every match from January 2005 onwards, which is the period after Darwin's last Test. So the search is quick: we hold no Test cricket at Darwin, and none at Mackay. For the first time in a while, our data has nothing useful to say about a venue, and saying so is more honest than dressing up a guess.
We hold three Tests between Australia and Bangladesh, all played in Bangladesh: Australia won at Fatullah in 2006 and at Chattogram in 2017, and Bangladesh won at Mirpur in 2017 by 20 runs, which remains their only Test win over Australia in our records.
Bangladesh's wider Test record in our data: 117 matches, 25 won, a win rate of 21 per cent. None of those 117 was played in Australia.
The squads
Australia have named Pat Cummins as captain, with Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald and Beau Webster.
Bangladesh are led by Najmul Hossain Shanto with Mehidy Hasan Miraz as vice captain, in a 15 man squad including Mushfiqur Rahim, Taskin Ahmed, Taijul Islam, Shadman Islam and Soumya Sarkar.
Why the timing is the story
August Tests in northern Australia exist because of the dry season, not the calendar's convenience. It is the one window when the Top End is playable, which is why Darwin's Test history is so thin in the first place.
For Bangladesh, a first tour in more than two decades arrives in conditions that are neither the bouncy Australian summer they were once asked to survive nor anything resembling home. That is a more interesting sporting question than the head to head record suggests.
We will have full scorecards for both matches as they are played.
Schedule, venue and squad details verified on 31 July 2026 against the official fixture announcement and the published series squads. All statistical figures computed by CricNerd from our own Test records, 2005 onwards.