Laura Wolvaardt: 'Incorporate red-ball into domestic cricket or we must leave it'

“It’s obviously a challenge for most of us having any sort of preparation in the format,” Wolvaardt said on the eve of South Africa’s Test against India in Chennai. “Just coming straight into an international multi-day game is difficult. For example, balls that I’ve been cover-driving my whole life, I now need to leave, which is difficult for me because it just happens on instinct and I have to fight the way that I’ve been batting for my entire career.

“I think either we need to play a lot more Test cricket and incorporate it into our domestic practice and training, or we must just leave it because playing one in three years is very hard to adapt to. But I’m on the side to have more of it.”

Wolvaardt hopes conversations are happening within the Cricket South Africa board to get women to play more red-ball cricket. South Africa women currently play the CSA Women’s Provincial 50-over tournament and T20s as part of their domestic season.

“I haven’t been part of any such conversations, but I’m hoping that it is a conversation higher up,” she said. “If we want to give ourselves the best chance to win these games internationally, we have to do some sort of preparation at a domestic level. Just coming straight into an international Test match is tough with no red-ball experience in the squad.”

South Africa will be playing three Tests this year; they have three in a year after a long time – they last did so in 1972. They played a Test in February in Australia, after a gap of nearly two years, now they have India, and they will be playing a multi-format series against England at home that includes a one-off Test in Bloemfontein in December. That will also be their first Test at home since 2002 when they played India in Paarl.

“Balls that I’ve been cover-driving my whole life, I now need to leave, which is difficult for me because it just happens on instinct and I have to fight the way that I’ve been batting for my entire career.”

Laura Wolvaardt

“I think getting opportunity to play more Test cricket is awesome and something that a lot of our girls are really looking forward to is playing more Tests. Obviously having three scheduled in a calendar year is pretty cool and something that I’ve wanted to see for a long time. I personally really enjoy the format and would love to see more of it. I think this Test will be a huge challenge for us. And hopefully we’re able to adapt to the conditions.”

Wolvaardt also acknowledged the challenge of batting on a spin-friendly Chepauk pitch, conditions South Africa are not too familiar with.

Sruthi Ravindranath is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo