Ngidi desperate to regain Test spot after being angered by axing

Though Lungi Ngidi is itching to go again after a lengthy break, he’s subconsciously grateful the time away has provided a cooling down period after being furious about his axing from the Proteas Test team last summer. 

Ngidi along with Rassie van der Dussen and Kyle Verreynne were the main casualties after the midsummer coaching changes to the national side. Ngidi, who had played two of the three Tests in Australia, was axed when Shukri Conrad took over ahead of the Tests against the West Indies.

“I didn’t expect it to happen that way. The new coach felt changes needed to be made and I wasn't the only one. There were others guys I thought did decently and they were also dropped from the team,” Ngidi said on Wednesday.

“At the time, I didn’t feel it made sense, you get angry, but that is part of life.”

Ngidi’s returns in the column that matters — wickets — had been modest. He took just one wicket in each of his last four Tests — two against England and two versus Australia. In a South African attack, in which the seam bowling component is central to the side’s ability to win, Conrad felt that wasn’t good enough and handed Gerald Coetzee starts against the West Indies. 

“At the time I didn’t want to hear anything, but you’ve got to hear it for you to fight your way back into the team. Whether you like it or not, that’s the information you’ve been given and you run with that,” Ngidi said.

His overall Test record is an excellent one — 51 wickets in 17 Tests at an average of 23.37. However it has occasionally looked like Ngidi, 27, has been more of a support act alongside the blistering light show provided by Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortjé.

Conrad has impressed on him to get back to domestic cricket and push his case for a recall for the India series next summer. “Test cricket is my favourite format and with the amount we are currently playing, to not be playing is why I felt so strongly about (being dropped). But decisions were made and as a player you must live with that and I have to fight my way back in, it’s not the first time for me.” 

The off-season has been a lengthy one for the Proteas but Ngidi explained it has provided precious opportunity to refine and improve skills in a way that wouldn’t be possible in the normal helter-skelter of an international season. Rob Walter, the Proteas’ limited overs coach, oversaw a skills camp in Durban recently, where Ngidi worked on much more than his bowling. 

“It was one of the first times I was able to bat for three hours, a full-on day of just batting, and that will only help in the future.”

His last competitive encounter was the ODI against the Netherlands at the start of April where the Proteas confirmed their automatic World Cup qualification, and he is looking forward to playing again in the Major League Cricket competition in the US next month.

“It would just be nice to play some competitive cricket again. I didn’t get any game time in the IPL, which was frustrating. What’s most important for me now is to get out in the middle, work under pressure, get the mind ticking again, the decision-making under pressure going,” he said.

Ngidi will play for the San Francisco Unicorns in the new tournament, sharing a dressing room with Australian World Cup winners Aaron Finch and Marcos Stoinis among others.

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