Welcome back, Lungi. Now lead our attack please…

Fast bowler Lungi Ngidi certainly did not return to cricket in a gingerly fashion at the weekend, shining with the ball for the Titans in his first competitive bowl for nearly two months.

His return augurs well for the Proteas as they head into a three-match series against England with an inexperienced pace attack.

Ngidi bowled with impressive control and discipline in the domestic One-day Cup opener against the Lions, taking 3/40 in nine overs, in his first match back after suffering a hamstring injury in the latter stages of the Mzansi Super League and then attending a Cricket South Africa conditioning camp in Pretoria.

The first ODI is tomorrow in Cape Town and Ngidi will only have Beuran Hendricks, Lutho Sipamla and Andile Phehlukwayo as fellow pacemen in the Proteas squad with Kagiso Rabada, Dwaine Pretorius, Anrich Nortje and Dane Paterson all resting.

Junior Dala and Wiaan Mulder are both still injured

“I feel very good and I feel really good about the results, losing 4-5kg, from the couple of weeks I spent at the HPC with Adrian le Roux working on my conditioning. It was good to finally have a block of time to work on that, just running, bowling and gyming, devoting 100% of your time to training. I pride myself on the way I bounce back and the Titans game was a step in the right direction. Hopefully I can keep that momentum going.

“It’s good to see some guys getting rest after their heavy workloads and leading the attack is something I’ve done before. I’m used to the expectation, I must just keep doing what I always do, just try to be as consistent as possible and keep taking wickets. We want to restrict England to as low a total as possible, they have good players, but we have good bowlers too,” Ngidi said at Newlands.

While Ngidi was presumably cutting potatoes and other harmful food items out of his diet and re-examining his lifestyle at the HPC, David Miller was busy playing, with limited success, for the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League.

David Miller of the Hurricanes plays a shot during the Big Bash League match between the Hobart Hurricanes and the Sydney Thunder at Blundstone Arena on January 24, 2020 in Hobart, Australia. (Photo by Steve Bell/Getty Images)

The left-handed batsman is now a veteran of the squad and said he was excited by the new look of the squad, but added this was not an excuse for under-performing.

“I had time off after the World Cup and then played in the MSL and the Big Bash, from which I got back on Tuesday.

“It was a great experience but I found it quite difficult to get into, although I had a nice score at the back end,” he said, referring to a sprightly 90 made off 48 balls.

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