Cape Town - Proteas Women's coach Hilton Moreeng believes his team's successful tour of New Zealand in 2020 will stand them in good stead heading into next month's ICC Women’s World Cup.
Although the world may have changed dramatically over the intervening two years, fortunately for the No 2 ranked Proteas the conditions they will encounter during the World Cup in New Zealand have not.
Moreeng's team, of course, blitzed the White Ferns 3-0 on their last trip to the land of the long white cloud just before their march to the T20 World Cup semi-finals in Australia. It was the first time the Proteas has won a series in New Zealand.
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It certainly helps that the vast majority of that squad are back again, although they are notably without their injured captain Dane van Niekerk. Although Van Niekerk's absence is a major drawback, the side still boast superstars of the women's game such as Lizelle Lee, Laura Wolvaardt, Marizanne Kapp and Shabnim Ismail within their ranks.
All-rounder Sune Luus has also made a seamless transition to leading the team for the past 12 months with notable series win in India and at home over Pakistan and the West Indies.
Moreeng is confident with this vast experience his team will be able to adapt quickly to the conditions after emerging from quarantine over the weekend.
"Its great to be outside. It was a tough hurdle but we know why we here and what the bigger picture is, and that's the World Cup. It was very good for us to regroup," Moreeng said.
"Everyone is in good spirits and good health. The most important thing is now to adapt to these conditions. We hope to have as many practices on these facilities because this is where we going to play.
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"Luckily we have the experience of most players having been here before. It has been our first outing on grass nets and it's similar to when we were here the last time. We have fond memories of that as a squad. We know its a World Cup, and every team is coming here to get into the knockout stages, but we are taking it one game at a time and to make sure while we are here we are taking care of our preparation," Moreeng added.
The Proteas have two high-quality warm-up matches against 2017 runners-up India (27 February) at the Rangiora Oval and defending champions England (2 March) in Lincoln to fine-tune their Word Cup preparations.
This all builds up to their much-anticipated tournament opener against Bangladesh at Dunedin's University Oval on Saturday March 5.
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