The Otago stalwart is in the twilight of her career, but that does not mean the desire to represent her country at the University Oval has been extinguished.
‘‘If I talk to the people that does the schedules, hopefully not,’’ Bates laughed, responding to whether it would her last international in Dunedin.
‘‘It’s a hard one because I sort of don’t know when the end point is.
‘‘I’ve loved playing, and my body’s still good, and when I’m contributing, I want to be out there.
‘‘I sort of have my eye on that twenty20 World Cup in Bangladesh and I’ll always reassess after pinnacle events.
‘‘No end point yet, so fingers crossed there’s plenty more Dunedin games, but I might have to talk to Catherine Campbell [general manager of cricket operations] — I think she’s in charge of that.’’
Bates has been given the captain’s armband in the absence of Sophie Devine — who, alongside Melie Kerr, will miss the first T20 as she travels back from the Women’s IPL — for their opening T20 against England today.
It will be the first time Bates has captained the national side in Dunedin, and while she did not miss all the ‘‘extra stuff’’ that came with the responsibility, it was always an honour to lead her country.
‘‘Any time you get to captain New Zealand’s special and I was fortunate to do it a number of times earlier in my career.
‘‘I guess for the one game to have it back, and to be in [front of] my family is pretty cool.
‘‘I’m not going to get heaps more opportunities, but to have it in Dunedin, I love playing here.’’
The White Ferns last T20 was against Pakistan last year and Bates said this series against England would be a ‘‘true measure’’ of where they were at.
‘‘All I know is that the last month the girls have trained their butts off and especially at their skills.
‘‘That doesn’t guarantee anything out in the middle, but we’ve done everything we can in the last month [to] make sure that we’re ready for a really quality England side.’’
The White Ferns have been testing their blend of youth and experience and two youngsters had been brought into the side in Georgia Plimmer and Mikaela Greig to replace Devine and Kerr.
It presents an exciting opportunity for Greig, who could make her international debut and has earned plenty of praise from her captain.
‘‘She’s a hard-hitting middle-order batter which we’re in search for,’’ Bates said.
‘‘She’s also a brilliant slips fielder, so I might have to get a slip in. She’s got great hands — some of the best hands in the country.’’
Every T20 game was crucial tin the build up to the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh later this year and Bates said they were lucky to play 10 T20s against England — both in New Zealand and England — in the coming months.
‘‘We’re going to be set up really well.
‘‘It’s the brand of cricket that we’re after that we need to, I guess, push.
‘‘You’ve seen the game grow so much, and it’s becoming a very aggressive game, and we’re going to try and stick by that and take it to England.’’ kayla.hodge@odt.co.nz
