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Proteas senior players to play big role at World T20

Cape Town - Proteas women's vice-captain Chloe Tryon believes that the senior players in their squad will have a big role to play during the 2018 ICC Women's World T20 which will be played in the West Indies from November 09-24.

She spoke ahead of the team's second unofficial warm-up match against India in Antigua as South Africa lost their first unofficial warm-up match by 17 runs to England on Monday.

READ: Proteas women must capitalize on batting opportunities

The senior players will have a big role to play in the success of the team and the vice-captain is delighted to have the added experience of Shabnim Ismail in the bowling attack to share the load with Marizanne Kapp and Masabata Klaas.

She said the fast bowler brings a lot of knowledge and experience to the side and plays the mentor role well with the youngsters who are just starting out in their international cricket careers.

"We've always had a big and fiery bowling unit and it’s so nice to have Shabnim back. She's a senior player and the girls like to listen to her a lot and she gives a lot of input and gives great insights as well," said Tryon.

"It's nice to have another senior player up front with Marizanne (Kapp) who's been really good. All that together just gives the youngsters more people to feed off from. It's been good to see them working on different things for themselves like variations.

"We are in the West Indies so the wickets are a bit slow so they know they will need to have different options to work on and they implemented those really well in the first warm-up match. It's really good to see that we've got one department that's really firing at the moment and hopefully the others (batting and fielding) can join in as well," she continued.

On the World T20, Tryon said the format has become very batter friendly and she's looking forward to seeing many big sixes and innovations from the teams participating.

It is also a format that makes it difficult to predict winners and with that in mind, cautioned against taking any team for granted.

"I feel like it's more of batter's game at the moment, but obviously the bowlers are working very hard. All around the world, the batters have been on top form and it's become a 360 (degree) game where they hit the ball everywhere," she exclaimed.

"You can see girls playing incredible shots and I feel like there'll be a lot of sixes but also a lot of running between the wickets and a lot of fancy shots.

"I'm really looking forward to it, I think it's going to be an exciting one, everyone's ready for it and you can't take any team for granted. Take a team like Bangladesh who toured against us (in South Africa) and we whitewashed them, but they went on to win the Asia Cup, so it's nice to see that character from them. I think it's going to be a really good T20 World Cup."

On the state of her own batting form and the look of the team ahead of the World T20 she said:

"I've been working really hard back home. I really enjoy playing in the West Indies. I know what I can do and what I'm capable of and I just need to back myself. I want to be that big hitter, but I also want to be a match winner, I want to win more games for South Africa. There's still a lot left in the tank and I feel like I'm only starting to get to where I want to be.

"I think this is going to be a really good World Cup for the team. I think that if we play well as a team then individuals will shine. I told the girls during the West Indies series that we can win this. It's just about the belief. When we chat and we're socialising, we're always just talking about cricket and we want to win, that's all we want. I feel like we've got the talent, it's just about the belief."

Thursday's warm-up match will start at 15:00 local time (21:00 SAST) at Coolidge Cricket Ground.

Proteas ICC Women's World T20 Squad:

Dané van Niekerk (captain, Eastern Province), Chloe Tryon (KwaZulu-Natal Coastal) Lizelle Lee (North West), Suné Luus (Northerns), Shabnim Ismail (Gauteng), Masabata Klaas (North West), Mignon du Preez (Northerns), Marizanne Kapp (Eastern Province), Laura Wolvaardt (Western Province), Zintle Mali (Border), Robyn Searle (Gauteng), Tumi Sekhukhune (Easterns) Saarah Smith (Western Province), Trisha Chetty (Gauteng)

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