South Africa’s star pacer, Lungi Ngidi has become a bit rusty of late.
He has not been able to get wickets at a consistent pace and is going wicketless in games.
Lungi played for South Africa in the recently concluded T20 World Cup where they got a shocking defeat at the hands of the Netherlands.
After the tournament, many of the South African players are on rest as was Lungi.
Ngidi is currently playing in a domestic tournament in which he has had a great outing for his side Multiply Titans.
The Titans beat DP World Lions by 10 wickets in the match and Test skipper Dean Elgar feels that Lungi has still time to improve.
Ngidi bowled 17 overs in the match in which he was able to take a single wicket.
Says Elgar,
He’s had a long lay-off from the (T20) World Cup. He is not where he should be ahead of a big series, but we’ve got time on our hands. He is aware of that and if he’s not, I’ll make him aware.
In just 15 Tests, Ngidi has managed to take 49 wickets so far.
The Proteas have just under three weeks to prepare for the big series and Ngidi will look to perform better.
Moreover, in the T20 World Cup, Ngidi played in five games for South Africa.
Adds Elgar,
He’s a professional guy, he knows where he’s at, at the moment and he’ll be working hard. I’m pretty confident that Lungi will bounce back, you can see he’s not played a lot of cricket of late, especially the longer format which is quite demanding. Time in the legs is something that you can’t replace.
Elgar is also excited to see the young pacer, Gerald Coetzee who has been doing really well in the domestic tournament so far.
Gerald is a tearaway…he ran into a few Proteas batters who were in form. He’s exciting, we are looking for guys with out and out pace. He’s basically a like-for-like for Anna (Nortje). Going to Australia you need skill and speed, he’s got the speed, and his game will be pretty direct.
South Africa is scheduled to depart for Australia on Thursday. They will first play a warm-up match in Brisbane before their first Test at the Gabba on the 17th of December.
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