I can’t wait for the next month-and-a-half – the early stages of the county season with Yorkshire, including our pre-season tour to Abu Dhabi, and the chance to qualify for another World Cup with Scotland.
I will be going straight from Abu Dhabi to Pakistan for the 50-over World Cup Qualifiers event, which runs from the start of April through until the middle of the month. The plan is for me to miss the first game of the season against Worcestershire on the 18th, but that should be it.
It’s a bit annoying to be missing that, but that’s the schedule we’ve got and I am really excited to have the chance to try and help Scotland get to the World Cup in India later this year.
Playing at the T20 World Cup in the UAE last October was a pretty crazy experience.
When you think back to it, it doesn’t seem like the same World Cup you watched when you were little.
Picture by Alex Davidson/ICC via Getty Images. Rachel Slater celebrates a wicket for Scotland against the West Indies at the T20 World Cup in the UAE at the start of this winter.
It was obviously tough.
I know, from the outside, we weren’t expected to do much.
We had a really good warm-up tour before it and won a few big games. So we were confident we could get a win somewhere. But it’s never nice when you lose every game because we all care deeply and were desperate to do well.
It was still an amazing experience. We had a lot of family and friends there across the whole group, which was nice.
I’m very grateful to have been a part of that, and hopefully there’s a few more to come.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Rachel Slater bowls for the Northern Diamonds last summer and has opted to swap them for Yorkshire in 2025.
You never want to just do it once. You want to keep going and qualify again and again.
Speaking for Scotland, we’re a good enough team to be playing at World Cups consistently.
The more opportunities we get to be competing against higher-ranked teams, the better we’ll become. We’re feeling good for those Qualifiers.
Yorkshire wise, I have loved it this winter at Headingley. The training with the girls and under Rich Pyrah and Chris Brice has been hard work but enjoyable.
All the girls have come in, and it’s been a very positive winter. The club’s been amazing, and it feels like we’re in a good place. We can’t wait to get away on tour next Monday as a full group and put the hard work into games.
Picture by John Clifton/SWpix.com. Batter Rebecca Duckworth will link up with Yorkshire in Abu Dhabi for their pre-season tour next week. She has spent the second half of the winter playing club cricket on the Gold Coast.
It will be the first time we’ve had a block of time where everyone’s together because a few of the girls have been away – Lauren Winfield-Hill and Sterre Kalis, Rebecca Duckworth too.
I think nearly two weeks away is going to be massively important for us. New faces, a few younger players, it’s very exciting!
This summer is a huge one for us because we want to be able to hit the ground running when we go up into Tier 1 in a year’s time.
We want to win games and win trophies and take it very seriously.
We’re in a unique position where this year is probably a bit easier for younger players coming into the first team.
Picture by YCCC. Rich Pyrah, Yorkshire’s new head coach.
It’s probably a smoother road in for them rather than being thrown in at the deep end against Tier 1 sides who have the best players in the country.
We need to use this year and play a lot of cricket and a lot of good cricket and try and dominate at this level. We want to make sure we get into good habits this year so that it makes next year a lot easier.
