Even though Laura Wolvaardt replaced Sune Luus as captain of South Africa less than a year ago, she has had difficulty leading the team. Despite her great batting throughout this time, South Africa hasn’t had much luck on paper, particularly in Twenty20 Internationals.
After suffering two series losses to Australia and Sri Lanka, Wolvaardt declared on the eve of the first game of the series against India that South Africa would field their strongest lineup and be the “most likely side to be playing in the World Cup” despite making changes to the squad in the previous few games. South Africa’s last assignment prior to the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in October will be the three-match T20I series.
“It’s one of our last dress rehearsals before the big occasion,” Laura Wolvaardt explained.
Therefore, we’ll be trying to field as strong of an eleven as we can and to have plans that are comparable, so we can have them for the World Cup in terms of batting lineups and bowling choices. And simply attempt to master various combinations. In the past couple of tours, we’ve had a few T20 series where we’ve kind of tried one or two things and given some young players an opportunity. However, we intend to play our strongest team, which is also the team that will most likely play in the World Cup, in this match.”
Spin-bowling all-arounder Chole Tryon has also returned to the team following an injury, and Laura Wolvaardt stated that her team is “pretty close” to finalising the starting lineup for the forthcoming World Cup. However, she was unable to verify whether Marizanne Kapp, who managed her workload in the Test and ODIs and played as a specialist hitter due to a slight back issue, was well enough to bowl in the shortest format.
“Marizanne would undoubtedly also be bowling in a perfect world, but aside from that, I think everyone is in agreement. Having Chloe back made me joyful too. If there are no injuries, it ought to be as near, she stated.
South Africa had lost nine of their last 15 Twenty20 International matches under Laura Wolvaardt’s leadership since the T20 World Cup final last year. They had dropped the Test by 10 wickets and the ODIs 3-0 in the multi-format series. She asked South Africa to obtain an extra “10-20 runs” and to be a little more consistent with the ball in their quest for a series victory. India, on the other side, recently won a 5-0 series against Bangladesh, won the one-off Test in Chennai by ten wickets, and won the ODIs 3-0 in Bengaluru.
“The batting team just needs to find those extra 10 or 20 runs.” We were sort of pushing the 150-160s during that Australia series, but given the nature of the game today and the fact that teams are playing on flat wickets, you know that teams are scoring 180-200, especially under these circumstances. There are also a lot of extremely high scores in the WPL. It’s just a matter of becoming a little bit more consistent and clinical with the ball. However, given the way the game is going, we must continue to play fearless and constructive cricket.”
Chennai, which has historically supported spin, provided South Africa with ideal conditions for the last leg of their preparations for the world event in Bangladesh. Laura Wolvaardt acknowledged that, in contrast to their usual bowling style, they had the chance to try spinners in the opening six overs or in the last overs. Apart from that, the only players who have participated in a T20I in Chennai are Tryon, Kapp, and Luus during the 2016 T20 World Cup.
“It’s a good time to maybe see if we could perhaps use a bit more spin in the powerplay or at the death,” she stated. “In the middle, we usually employ a lot of spin, but here might be a good moment to try out one or two new ideas. India is likely to have a large number of spinners and perhaps only one or two pacers, thus they will likely bowl spin all innings long, which is something we could also try. However, that does depend on the day, the way the conditions develop, and how spin-friendly the environment is.
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“Compared to the Test, the wicket appears slightly different in the T20s. This one appears to be a little bit lighter and whiter than the red clay test we took, I believe. We’ll have to watch how much of a turn it takes, though, as we’ve never played a white-ball game here before. Yes, the first day of the test was a bit of a difficult hard slog. None of our plans were working out for us. Yes, we have had a few conversations, but the main focus of T20 cricket is to try and quiet the really potent Indian hitters. As such, the main focus has been on talking around their batsmen and possibly keeping them quiet.
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