Last year the 21-year-old was lacing up her boots and playing guard for the Tall Ferns at the Beijing Olympics.
Less than 12 months later she has switched codes and will be donning pads in an effort to help the White Ferns upset Australia in the opening match of the women's World Cup in Sydney tomorrow.
The talented all-rounder took last summer off to concentrate on her Olympic dream, and struggled to get back into the groove of cricket.
But towards the end of the domestic season she began to find her best form, and she is one of the key players in the New Zealand side along with Otago team-mate Sarah Tsukigawa.
The White Ferns lost their final warm-up match against India but Bates is confident her side can do well at the tournament.
"We've had pretty good preparation," Bates said.
"We had the Rose Bowl [against Australia] before we came away and went 2-2 with them, which was pretty good.
"So we have definitely put some good performances in.
"I guess India was a bit of a disappointment to lose, especially so close to the World Cup.
"But I think we learnt a lot from that."
"Hopefully, we can move on, and I suppose it was the best time to have a loss."
Bates was one of the few batsmen to perform well against India, scoring 34 as her side was dismissed for 141, chasing 169 for the win.
Australia goes into the tournament as the favourite, and England and India are both handy teams.
New Zealand is ranked third in the world and should not have too many difficulties getting through to the second stage.
It is in a pool with Australia, West Indies and South Africa and must finish in the top three to progress to the super six.
Bates said the World Cup was low-key, compared with the Olympics, but added "there is a lot of security around with what happened recently in Lahore".
