The South African fast bowler Lungi Ngidi has fetched three times more money in SA20 auction than he fetched in the IPL mega auction earlier this year. Ngidi was bought by Delhi Capitals at his base price of 50 Lakh INR in the IPL auction, as no other team showed interest in him.
There were a couple of reasons behind the teams not bidding hard for Ngidi in the IPL mega auction. His form in international cricket last year or even in IPL 2021 was not that great and it seemed as if his career graph as a player was going down. There were question marks over his overall fitness as a bowler as well.
But, in the last few months, Lungi Ngidi has put on some wonderful performances for South Africa in white ball cricket. The right armer has upskilled himself, as he now has a lethal off cutter in his armour, which dips on the batsman at the last moment. Ngidi can also crank up speeds in the range of 140 kph when he wants to.
Lungi Ngidi will be a local player in SA20 as opposed to IPL
Apart from the cricketing reasons, another reason behind the high pricing of Lungi Ngidi in SA20 auction and not in the IPL mega auction is the fact that he is an overseas player in IPL, but in the SA20, he will be a local player. As it happens in most of the leagues around the world, South African T20 league will also have 7 local players and only 4 overseas players in the playing XI of each team.
Lungi Ngidi (1.52cr INR) and Tabraiz Shamsi (1.93cr INR) sold to Paarl Royals.
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) September 19, 2022
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Ngidi was the first player to go under the hammer today as the SA20 auction started in the afternoon and after a fierce battle with Sunrisers Eastern Cape (the sister franchise of Sunrisers Hyderabad), Paarl Royals (the sister franchise of Rajasthan Royals) bought Ngidi for 3.4 million Rand, which is a tad more than 1.5 crore INR.
