Laura Wolvaardt excited to lead Proteas women on maiden Pakistan tour

Laura Woolvardt, the temporary captain of the South Africa women’s team, is eager to lead her squad on the first historic visit to an Asian nation ahead of the opening match of the three-match T20I series against Pakistan, which begins on Friday.

Wolvaardt is ready to start her reign with a series victory over Pakistan. She is a gifted top-order hitter. She was only appointed interim captain last week, taking over for Sune Luus.

“It is very exciting to be here, It is an incredible journey to be here for the first historic tour to Pakistan and I think everyone is excited. We have had a couple of good training sessions here, we are looking forward to seeing how the pitch will play as it is new for all of us in the group,” Woolvardt was quoted by ICC.

When Luus decided to step down from the captaincy position just months after leading South Africa to their first ICC final at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup on home soil at the beginning of the year, the 24-year-old, a stalwart of the Proteas women team for many years, was an obvious choice to take over as captain.

Woolvardt also discussed her chat with Luus regarding the position she had held for so many years and the advice she had received from other former captains and coaches who had helped her advance.

“I have had chats with both (former South Africa captains) Sune (Luus) and Dane (van Niekerk) and just chatted about the opportunity and the experience. Captains that I have looked up to from other countries would be Meg Lanning and Heather Knight as I like how calm they are going about cricket and they never look fazed on the field,” she said.

“It has been a mixture of talking to people, even people who weren’t captains, like past coaches that I have had just to get as much advice as I can. Everyone goes about it in a different way so most of the advice I have gotten has been to be true to who I am and do it my own way” she added.

Following Bismah Maroof’s resignation earlier this year, Nida Dar will take over as captain of the Pakistani Women’s team. The youthful Pakistani team is expected to put up a fight, and Woolvardt said she welcomes the competition.

“It’s our first-ever tour to Pakistan, so the training sessions ahead of the T20I series will be very important to help us understand the conditions here. This is going to be a big series, a closely contested one. Pakistan is a very competitive side, and Nida is a very good captain. They have very talented young players on their side, so we are up for a very good series,” Woolvardt said.

-IANS