Laura Wolvaardt opens up on form slump, technique and Test captaincy

South African star batter Laura Wolvaardt is gearing up for a new challenge as she leads her team in a Test match against Australia, marking her debut as captain in the longest format. The 24-year-old, known as one of the world's best batters, faced a tough run in the recent ODIs and T20Is against Australia, scoring low in multiple innings. 

Wolvaardt admitted to her recent challenges, acknowledging that it hasn't been her best series. Despite struggling with technical errors leading to dismissals, she expressed optimism after productive days at the nets, aiming to address these issues.

"Not my best series, but I’ve had a good couple of days now in the nets just hopefully fixing those small technical errors that have had me nicking off the whole time.Hopefully, I'm able to bat a bit longer in the Test match," she said, as quoted by cricket.com.au

Reflecting on her previous Test experience in 2022 against England, where she scored 16 in both innings, Wolvaardt expressed confidence in her technique for the longest format. Despite challenging conditions in Australia, she believes having more time to leave the ball and get into good positions will work in her favour.

"I think the conditions (in Australia) have been pretty challenging, it has been swinging around quite a bit in the ODI series, and it might do a bit more here. But at least I have more time to leave the ball and get in good positions, so hopefully I can just spend a bit of time out there and it just takes one or two shots and I'll be back," she added.

Also Read: CSA appoints Laura Wolvaardt as South Africa women's team captain for all three formats

That's probably the hardest part, having a crash course in the last few days: Wolvaardt

With several debutantes in the Proteas' XI and limited experience in red-ball cricket, Wolvaardt admitted that adapting to Test captaincy had been a crash course.

"That's probably the hardest part, is having a crash course in the last few days. Captaincy wise as well, just the fields and not having much domestic experience with the red ball either makes it quite challenging," she added.

As Wolvaardt embraces the dual role of captain and key batter, both teams have a short turnaround to shift their focus to the red ball. Despite the challenges, Wolvaardt remains optimistic and said that the more they will play, the better they'll get at it.

"We had a Test match camp before this tour just to touch on the basics … hopefully the more we play the better we'll get at it," she concluded.