The national women's cricket captain will probably finish her career as her country's greatest batter, but the hard-working 'all-rounder' has more strings to her bow than just a glorious cover drive.

Laura Wolvaardt is an exceptionally talented batter with a range of strokes - particularly her eye-catching cover drive - that draws admiration from fans and even sporadic cricket watchers.

At 24, she's in the top five highest run-scorers for the country in one-day international (ODI) and T20I cricket, and she will almost certainly end her career at the top of the pile.

Wolvaardt also has the highest average in both formats for the country, and has scored at a faster rate than anyone else in the top 20 run-scorers list in T20I cricket. She is the definition of a generational talent.

But recently the sweet strokemaker was presented with the added responsibility of captaining the national side - initially temporarily, but she looks set to continue to lead the side for the foreseeable future.

There were concerns that the burden that comes with being the captain might affect her batting performances. But in Wolvaardt's first expedition as skipper at the start of the month, she finished as player of the series in a three-match T20I series against Pakistan after racking up 157 runs in three innings.

"I think in a way [the captaincy] almost helped me a bit, because sometimes...