'It Is An Incredible Journey To Be Here...', Laura Wolvaardt Excited To Lead Proteas Women On Maiden Pakistan Tour

T20 World Cup: Ahead of the opening match of the three-match T20I series against Pakistan, starts on Friday, interim captain of South Africa women's team Laura Woolvardt feels excited to lead her side for the first historic tour to Asian nation.

Wolvaardt, a talented top-order batter, is eager to begin her reign with a series victory over Pakistan. She was only named Sune Luus' replacement as interim captain last week.

"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.

The 24-year-old, a stalwart of Proteas women team for many years, was an obvious choice to take over as captain 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.

Woolvardt also stated her conversation with Luus, about the role she had held for all these years and has also gotten counsel from other former captains and coaches who have assisted her in reaching the top.

"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.

The Pakistani Women's side will also be led by a new captain Nida Dar following the quitting of Bismah Maroof earlier this year. Woolvardt expects a tough battle from the young Pakistani side and said she takes it as a challenge.

"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.

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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.