Ngidi building up for England
FITNESS: SPEEDSTER HAS COVERED ALL BASES IN TRAINING
The 2019/20 summer is shaping up as a very important one for fast bowler Lungi Ngidi and the 23-year-old is paying serious attention to honing his craft, whether it be for T20 matches or Test cricket, whether it be working on his skills or his body.
Ngidi is starting to develop a reputation for being injury-prone, which is the last thing a fast bowler wants, and although his current focus is the Mzansi Super League, he knows South Africa need him firing on all cylinders for the Test series against England that follows the T20 tournament.
Since the World Cup, in which he was injury-plagued, Ngidi has taken seven wickets in seven innings at an average of 55.85, but has been bowling in pacemen’s graveyards – Thiruvananthapuram, Mysore, Vizianagaram, Ranchi and Bloemfontein. But today he gets the chance to bowl on what should be a pacy SuperSport Park surface as the Tshwane Spartans play their first home game, against the Nelson Mandela Bay Giants.
“I’ve been preparing for all formats because I know straight after the MSL there is a Test match I might be playing in, so I’m making sure I cover all the bases in training. I know what’s coming up and it would be very irresponsible for me to disregard that. So I’m training T20 but I’m making sure that all my bowling loads are up for four or five-day cricket and I’m not neglecting those skills either.
“I’m very excited to be playing and to get going in the MSL which last year I unfortunately missed out on due to injury. But you never know beforehand when you’re going to tear a hamstring. As a young bowler I’m still trying to find the best way to be 100% ready for every game and different trainers have different ways, but I feel things are better now,” Ngidi said at SuperSport Park in Centurion yesterday.
Apart from having Ngidi fit, another change this season for the Tshwane Spartans, who finished second-last in 2018, is that they have built their side around players like Ngidi who have intimate knowledge of playing in Centurion. Interestingly, however, there is also a strong Titans presence in the Nelson Mandela Bay Giants team, with Heino Kuhn, Chris Morris, Farhaan Behardien, Imran Tahir and Junior Dala all starring for the Eastern Cape franchise when they beat the defending champion Jozi Stars by 24 runs at the weekend. Current Titans captain Grant Thomson is also in the Eastern Cape squad.