Rain has reduced Australia's Twenty20 international against South Africa on the Gold Coast to a 10-over-a-side clash.

The toss will be held at 8:55pm (AEDT) with play set to get under way at 9:20.

The start was delayed when thunderstorms hit Metricon Stadium within an hour of the 7:20 scheduled start.

The battling Australian team had hoped to gain winning momentum from the one-off clash ahead of a three-game T20 series against India and the summer Tests.

Australia need a confidence boost after the fallout over the ball-tampering scandal, a scathing review and a 2-1 one-day series loss to the Proteas.

And they would have fancied their chances at the first international cricket match played on the Gold Coast.

They have won 11 of their 17 T20s against the Proteas, including five of the past six at home.

However, Australia have won just two of their past seven T20 internationals overall after recently being swept 3-0 by Pakistan in the UAE.

Australia are without their star pace trio Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, who are on Sheffield Shield duty before the Tests.

Australia T20 squad: Aaron Finch (capt), Alex Carey, Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, D'Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa.

South Africa T20 squad: Faf du Plessis (capt), Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Imran Tahir, Heinrich Klaasen, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Chris Morris, Lungi Ngidi, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi.