Exclusive: Tabraiz Shamsi Reveals the Brotherhood Fuelling Lungi Ngidi’s World Cup Comeback

South Africa’s leading T20I wicket-taker, Tabraiz Shamsi, is over the moon for the recent success of his close friend Lungi Ngidi at the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. 

Shamsi tells the story of how he met Ngidi at practice as an 18-year-old aspiring Proteas player and how their friendship has blossomed over the years.

Lungi’s Journey

Proteas coach Shukri Conrad used the words, ‘he’s responded just how we wanted him to’, when describing Ngidi’s journey with the Proteas over the last couple of years.

Conrad axed a number of players when he first took over as South Africa’s Test coach, and Ngidi was one of them, with the coach emphasising that he believes Ngidi was behind in the Proteas’ fast bowlers’ pecking order.

Three years later, Ngidi has won the ICC World Test Championship for Conrad and is now his best bowler in the ongoing T20 World Cup.

However, Ngidi’s challenges did not start with Conrad’s arrival. He was overlooked during the 2024 edition of the T20 World Cup, only getting a spot in the team as a travelling reserve.

Ngidi is sitting with two T20 World Cup Player of the Match awards in only three games, and is breaking records left, right and centre.

Perhaps the most sparkling record he has broken thus far, along with the back-to-back awards earlier in the tournament, is that he went through his four-over spell against India, the world’s number one-ranked T20I team, with the world’s number one-ranked T20I batter in Abhishek Sharma, without conceding a single boundary.

That was the first time any seam bowler had gone without conceding a boundary against India since Beuran Hendricks almost seven years ago.

Tabraiz Shamsi, despite not being in the Proteas squad in India, has walked the journey with Ngidi, always finding a reason to crack a joke and put a smile on each other’s faces.

Shamsi understands what his teammate had to go through over the last couple of years, and is over the moon for his recent success.

“I’m flipping over the moon for Lungi. He's been in and out of the previous World Cup. I think he was part of the reserves, and he's always putting work behind the scenes like everyone else. But to have that resilience in order to just make it count, that's what's important,” Shamsi told SportsBoom.co.za in an exclusive interview.

“As a player, you always know that if I'm going to be in and out of the team, I can't mope around here. I can't sulk around. If I'm not in, I got to do the work behind the scenes because when I do get my opportunity, I need to grab it. I think that's what Lungi has done beautifully." 

“He's one of our most dependable bowlers now, not only now in this World Cup, but I suppose in the last year as well. He's shown that he's somebody that you can throw the ball to if there's a little bit of a dodgy situation for the team. To win back-to-back World Cup man of the matches, that's not a joke either. That's the kind of guy he is.”

The Friendship

When Shamsi and Ngidi are in the same Proteas camp, it is pure entertainment, not only for their teammates but also for fans around the world.

You would find the duo going at each other on social media, taking jabs at each other, and always making each other and the world laugh, amid all the seriousness of being professional cricketers.

Often, it would be Shamsi who goes on about how he would make light work of Ngidi if he were to bat against him, and Ngidi would look at him and laugh as he understands that Shamsi, as a tailender, probably has no chance against his pace and skill.

Funny enough, when reflecting back on how he met Ngidi, Shamsi had a similar attitude and was humbled by the then 18-year-old Ngidi.

“The reason we're close is that when he first joined the Titans, I had to face him. That's when they were trialling him, and I was doing some batting in the nets,” Shamsi added. 

“They said, there's this kid from TUKS that we need to have a look at, do you mind if he just joins in? And I was like, yeah, cool. And then I was like, shit, this guy bowls quick. I was just thinking, it was going to be some 18-year-old that's going to bowl at me." 

“From there, that's where our relationship developed. He was a young guy in the team, and we've been friends since then. We’ve been through ups and downs together. I'm really, really happy, man." 

“I really wish for South Africa to go on and win the World Cup and for Lungz to actually be the player of the tournament. That would make me super, super excited.”

Ngidi and his Proteas teammates will take on the West Indies on Thursday in their second Super Eights fixture.