Proteas Women's captain Laura Wolvaardt is thrilled to welcome back retired legends Shabnim Ismail and Dané van Niekerk ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup in the UK. Photo: Backpagepix
Image: BackpagePix
Proteas Women’s captain Laura Wolvaardt believes her team has just the right amount of youth and experience to go all the way at next month’s ICC T20 Women’s World Cup in the UK.
Veteran fast bowler Shabnim Ismail and former captain Dané van Niekerk have both come out of retirement recently and will join a squad that has reached the last three major ICC tournament finals – including successive ICC T20 Women’s World Cup finals.
After spending some time in the wild getting reacquainted, Wolvaardt is hoping that the duo’s combined experience of 204 T20 Internationals, along with the exuberance of youngsters Kayla Reyneke and Karabo Meso, will be the formula to take the Proteas to the promised land at the third attempt.
“(We) had a good few days. First, we got together for team-building, spent some time together away in the bush, did some activities together, but then also had some really productive chats, sort of talking about how we're going to go about the next few weeks,” Wolvaardt said ahead of the team’s departure on Monday.
“I feel like it was really good to sort of all be on the same page, and it feels like we're all heading towards a common goal and are really together on what we're trying to do.
“The vibe's been good. It's very nice to have some of the old faces back; I think they just bring some good energy. Obviously, they've been here before, so they know everyone and fit in pretty quickly, pretty easily.
“Then we still have some young energy as well, so I think it's a pretty good balance with some senior players with experience and then also some youngsters like Kayla and KB who bring the energy.”
The Proteas have been placed in a tough group alongside juggernauts Australia, ODI world champions India, a resurgent Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the Netherlands.
Wolvaardt’s side open their campaign against the Aussies in Manchester on 13 June.
“It's a tough group,” the skipper admitted.
“Australia and India in one group is pretty big. You've got to beat one of them. And then Pakistan, they've been playing some really good T20 cricket lately as well, so I think they're going to be a bit of a dark horse in the tournament, especially with how a couple of them have been striking the ball.
“I think we really just need to take it one game at a time, not get too ahead of ourselves. Just think about that first game against Australia and what we can do to beat them, and then focus on the next game when that's done.
“I think if we look too far ahead, it might get a bit overwhelming.”