Captain Laura Wolvaardt is Going to Be Key Player For South Africa: Heather Knight

With the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 already underway, England’s women’s team will get its campaign up and running with a blockbuster match against South Africa.

In a conversation with JioStar, England stars Heather Knight, Captain Nat Sciver-Brunt, and Sophie Ecclestone reflected on the challenge of facing South Africa’s Captain, Laura Wolvaardt. They stressed the importance of sticking to their plans and executing well in what promises to be a tough contest in front of passionate Indian crowds.

“South Africa is a very good team. We obviously played them recently in a series in South Africa and had some success, but they’ve got some brilliant players. I think they’ve done really well under Laura’s (Wolvaardt) captaincy. She’s a calm leader, and I think her batting has gone to another level since she’s been captain. She’s going to be a key player for them. Hopefully, we can keep her quiet, but we know we will have to perform very well. It’s going to be a tough test first up.”

“Laura Wolvaardt is such a big player for South Africa; if you let her get going, it’s very difficult to get her out. So, we’ll be putting our plans in place for her. Obviously, they’ve had a very good opening partnership in the last series they played, so it will be important for us to get their wickets early, and hopefully we can do that.”

“Laura Wolvaardt is the player to watch out for. I’ve bowled a lot recently against her, including in a Test match against South Africa. Getting her out is massive, as they rely heavily on her to score runs. They’ve obviously got great all-rounders now, but Wolvaardt is still central to their batting. Hopefully, we can get her out early. I’m hoping one of the seamers gets her rather than me! But it’s really exciting to come up against her.”