Make no mistake, Australian cricket is in turmoil.

The Newlands ball-tampering scandal is still an open wound Down Under, so much so that Cricket Australia have opted not to reduce the bans handed down to Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft, and performances out in the middle have done little to raise spirits.

The scandal that rocked cricket came in the middle of a series defeat in South Africa and Tim Paine's Test outfit suffered the same fate against Pakistan only a few weeks ago, despite the captain's best efforts to reinvent Australian cricket both on and off the field.

The absence of Warner and Smith in particular has really hurt the already thin Australian batting stocks and this loss has been felt most keenly in white-ball cricket.