Picture by Thananuwat Srirasant/Getty Images. Rachel Slater is relishing the prospect of taking on England at Headingley this summer.
Rachel Slater couldn’t hide her delight when she found out that Scotland would be playing England at Headingley in June’s T20 World Cup group stage.
“Oh wow, I’m buzzing about that,” said the homegrown swing bowler.
“It’s genuinely the best case scenario. I couldn’t have picked anything better.”
Scotland have been placed in Group B and will face both the host nation and holders New Zealand, the former under lights at Headingley on June 20 (6.30pm).
Two days prior to the England clash, on Thursday 18, they also face the West Indies at Headingley under lights at the same time.
Slater and fellow Yorkshire fast bowler Hannah Rainey recently returned home from Nepal, where the Scots secured one of four qualifying places alongside Bangladesh, Ireland and Sterre Kalis’s Netherlands.
“It’s as close to a home World Cup as we’ll get, and England is the fixture we’d looked out for and hoped we’d get,” continued left-arm quick Slater.
“Personally, to have that at Headingley – the ground where I’ve grown up watching cricket at and am now playing at – it will be really special.
Picture by Thananuwat Srirasant/Getty Images. Rachel Slater has just helped Scotland come through the T20 World Cup Qualifier event in Nepal.
“I think this will be a moment which will be pretty hard to top for me.
“You always look back and remember the experiences and the moments, and this will be amazing.
“Playing against England at the last World Cup didn’t go too well for us (10-wicket defeat at Sharjah, October 2024), so hopefully we can give a better showing this time.”
Slater was involved at the last World Cup, where Scotland lost all four group matches.
“We came away from that pretty disappointed that we didn’t win our opening game against Bangladesh, certainly,” she recalled. “It was quite close, and I think we all generally felt that if we hadn’t have played that game in 40-odd degrees as our first ever game at a World Cup, we could have won.
“Then, you never know, things could have been different.”
There might be a couple of gorgeous evenings at Headingley, but the chances are they won’t be 40 plus degrees!
“Yeah,” laughed the 24-year-old. “Obviously conditions will suit us better this time.
Picture by Matt Roberts/Getty Images. England’s Sarah Glenn could face her new Yorkshire team-mates Rachel Slater and Hannah Rainey at Headingley in June.
“And, barring England, there won’t be another team who have as many players playing in these conditions in the build-up. We have a lot of girls playing county cricket, playing on the same pitches, and hopefully that will benefit us a lot.”
Slater says confidence in the Scottish camp is high after their qualifying campaign in Nepal, which finished on February 1 with a comfortable win over USA. That secured their place at the main event.
“Typical Scottish fashion, we did make it interesting for ourselves,” she reflected. “We’d have liked to beat the Netherlands in our first game, but we had a few injuries and some illness around.
“They’d already played a game at the tournament, and we weren’t at our best.
“We then beat Ireland in the Super Six stage, which was massive for us. We knew that unless there was a disaster with net run-rate, we’d pretty much be there. But then we lost our next game to Bangladesh by 90 runs and Ireland won theirs by 98, which made things tricky again.
“It meant we had to win on the last day, which we thankfully did.
“It was stressful, and a really tough tournament. The standard of cricket was very high. But I think we deserved to qualify. And it’s quite nice to have had that big moment to qualify having had to fight hard for it. That will give us a lot of confidence moving forwards. We’re in a really good place.”
Slater, raised in Leeds, was born in New York State to a Scottish mother.
Picture by Francois Nel/Getty Images. Seamer Hannah Rainey is Yorkshire’s other Scotland star who will hope to shine in the World Cup at Headingley this coming June.
She claimed seven wickets in six matches in Nepal, including a best of 3-24. Unfortunately, Rainey was unable to play because of injury despite travelling.
“Hannah’s had a tough few months with injuries and definitely hasn’t played as much cricket as she would like and as much as we would have liked her to,” said Slater.
“But moving to Yorkshire has been really good for her, and it will be good for her being able to work with Rich (Pyrah) and Brycey (Chris Bryce) and Kev (Sharp).
“Hopefully she’ll be back out there soon because she’s an important player for both Yorkshire and Scotland. She’s still got so much to give, and she’s an amazing team-mate who works so, so hard.”
On her own form, which saw her strike in four of six matches in Nepal, Slater said: “That’s been the really pleasing thing this winter.
“I had a really tough summer last summer. Obviously I broke my wrist on pre-season tour, and I struggled quite a bit mentally after that with the fear of the ball coming back at me.
“That’s actually why I missed a block of matches at the end of the season. It was more a mental thing, and I lost my consistency as a result.
“But I took some time out, did a lot of work with a psychiatrist and the coaches, and it’s been really pleasing this winter that the consistency is back.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Rachel Slater is now back with Yorkshire and concentrating on starting the county summer with a bang.
“I would have liked a four-for or a five-for and to be that kind of big player, but this is definitely as consistent as I’ve been throughout my career so far.
“I feel like I’m in a good place heading into the summer.”
After a well-earned break, Slater is now back in training with Yorkshire.
She will tour Abu Dhabi with her county next month, and full focus is now on starting the county campaign – the side’s first in Tier 1 – with a bang.
“I’m obviously going to be missing some games because of the World Cup,” she added. “It’s not ideal, but it can’t be helped.
“It’s just about making sure that for that first block of games I’m available for, I’m at 100 percent and try to help put the team in a good position.
“We’ve got a really good squad. We’ve made some great signings in Sarah Glenn, Jess Jonassen and Hannah, who was obviously on loan with us for the back end of last year.
“I don’t have any doubts at all that we have the ability to move up and compete in Tier 1.”