India, Oct. 9 -- Nic Maddinson's return to the Australia national cricket team after nearly 10 years was supposed to mark the beginning of an extraordinary cricketing comeback. Instead, the 34-year-old Australian opener endured a 33-ball duck against South Africa in the first Test at Kingsmead, Durban, on Friday. Maddinson was bowled for zero, recording the third-longest duck by an opener in Test history and the most deliveries faced by an Australian Test opener dismissed without scoring.

However, the scorecard tells only a fraction of the story about Maddinson's return to the cricket pitch. The 34-year-old Maddinson returned to international Test cricket after undergoing surgery and nine weeks of chemotherapy for testicular cancer, whic...