Laura Wolvaardt reflects on decade of representing Proteas Women

Wolvaardt made her debut against England in an ODI in February 2016 as a wide-eyed 16-year-old at Willowmoore Park in Benoni, the same venue at which she’ll be leading her side in tonight’s final T20 International against Pakistan.  

She says a lot has happened over the decade she’s played at senior level, but on that day – where she scored only 5 runs opening alongside Trisha Chetty – she was only happy to even be in the team. 

"Ja, it's crazy, I can't believe it's been 10 years already. I think the last four or five years have been so busy that they've gone by in an absolute flash," said Wolvaardt.

"I still remember being a 16-year-old making my debut here in Benoni, I was just happy to get a game, let alone playing for 10 years for my country.

"It's super special and yeah, it's crazy how far I think I've changed as a cricketer as well."

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Wolvaardt has gone on to represent South Africa on 213 occasions across all three formats of the game, amassing just over 8000 runs in the process. 

One of the best batters in world cricket currently across all formats, she highlighted the areas of her game which she feels she’s improved on since that day all those years ago. 

"I think I've always just really enjoyed cricket, so I've always just really enjoyed practicing a lot and batting a lot, so yeah, I think I've put in a lot of hours and I really like how my game has evolved since my debut," she added.

"I think, as a 16-year-old, I didn't have much power, kind of just had a cover drive, pretty one-dimensional and batted pretty slow, I don't quite know if I was ready for international cricket at that stage yet.

"But yeah, I feel like I've worked on quite a lot of areas of my game, opening a lot of spaces on the field, getting a bit stronger working on my power hitting.

"So I really like the way it's evolved and I think there's still so much more room for improvement the next 10 years, which is exciting."