Current Generation Unscathed by the 'Choker's' Tag - Lungi Ngidi

South Africa’s prodigy bowler Lungi Ngidi believes the current generation of the Proteas players is unaffected by ‘Chokers’ tag. The Rainbow nation hasn’t performed up to their standards in the big events. They always had a good team but they haven’t been able to go all the way in the World Cup event. Thus, the South African team will like to turn the tables in the upcoming World Cup.

On the other hand, South Africa was knocked out from the previous World Cup edition in the semifinal stage against New Zealand. Meanwhile, Lungi Ngidi is recuperating from the knee injury.

South Africa will like to turn the tables.

“As a team, you don’t see it as choking,” Ngidi said on the sidelines of the Cricket World Cup 2019 Trophy Tour. “People are allowed to play good cricket on the day. It’s all international teams so you can’t tell me you’re not going to lose a semi-final game.

“It is tough (to win a semi-final), and it hasn’t been able to be done in the past, but it could happen this year,” he said. “That chokers tag is created by people, but I wouldn’t say it affects the team.

“We’ve got nothing to lose,” he pointed out. “It (winning the World Cup) has never been done before by the cricket team, so we’re going there with a clean slate.”

Ngidi looks to inspire the next generation.

Lungi Ngidi was in grade one when South Africa had hosted the World Cup event in 2003. Hence, it had inspired him to take up the sport. Similarly, the fast bowler believes that World Cup triumph can motivate the next generation of South African kids to fall in love with the game.

“I’ve always been one to say that most of our talent is hidden in the deepest and darkest corners of South Africa. So we don’t know if we could be getting the next Kagiso Rabada or Dale Steyn out of Soweto. It’s good to inspire people and show them anything is (possible)!”

South Africa will like to turn the tides in the upcoming World Cup. In fact, they have a potent bowling line-up and will want their batting unit to be at the top of their game. However, they are going to miss the services of AB de Villiers who had surprisingly called it day in May 2018.

South Africa will begin their World Cup campaign against hosts England on 30th May 2019. Faf du Plessis has led the side with aplomb in the recent past and they won the recent ODI series against Pakistan by 3-2. South Africa will now take on Sri Lanka with the first Test match to begin from 13 February.