New Delhi, May 4 (IANS) Delhi Capitals bowling coach Munaf Patel confirmed that fast bowler Lungi Ngidi has cleared the mandatory concussion stand‑down period and is ‘100 percent fit’ to return to action ahead of the side’s crucial clash against five-time champions Chennai Super Kings, to be played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday evening.

Ngidi suffered an unfortunate head injury while fielding in the third over of DC’s afternoon game against Punjab Kings on April 25 and was rushed to BLK-Max Super Speciality Hospital, Pusa Road, in an ambulance via a green corridor created by Delhi Police.

Under ICC regulations, a mandatory seven‑day stand‑down applies to players diagnosed with concussion. Even though IPL 2026 Playing Conditions did not spell it out explicitly, Ngidi had to serve that rest period after being discharged from the hospital on the same evening, with scans revealing no major concerns.

“All bowlers are fit and Lungi is 100 percent fit because he didn’t play two games because of the six-day criteria. But he’s a hundred percent fit now,” said Munaf in the pre-match press conference on Monday.

Though Kyle Jamieson did very well to dismiss Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in Jaipur, where DC won by six wickets, he did go for runs. DC would want for Ngidi to partner with left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc as he has been prolific with his repertoire of slower balls, especially in the death overs.

Starc marked his return to DC with the prized wicket of the in‑form Yashasvi Jaiswal and his inclusion has proved to be a timely boost, especially with the side eyeing a spot in the playoffs. The left-arm pacer will be eyeing to take out Ruturaj Gaikwad and Sanju Samson to set the tone up front while remaining a potent threat in the death overs.

Since his IPL comeback in 2025, Starc has taken 17 wickets in 11 innings at an economy of 10.2, including a best of 5-35. Against CSK, he has six wickets from seven games at an economy rate of 7.2. More importantly, DC’s results since IPL 2025 are significantly better when Starc clicks – he has 14 wickets in wins for them at nine runs per over, compared to just three scalps in losses at an economy rate of 12.5.

“Absolutely – if a wicket-taker comes in powerplay, your whole plan changes. If a wicket-taker comes in the first six overs, the whole scenario changes. As you can see, scores of 230 and 240 are being chased down because one is unable to pick wickets in power-play. But when your main bowler returns and gets you two wickets in powerplay, it makes a lot of difference.

“So, bowling in partnerships was somewhere missing for us and now it has been added. “Obviously, you get that belief as you have a world-class bowler. You can call him the captain of the bowling unit. He is the main bowler in the fast bowlers. Everyone gets confidence from him,” added Munaf.

He also admitted that poor returns of Indian pacers Mukesh Kumar and Auqib Nabi meant DC had to revert to going heavy with overseas presence in their bowling attack. “Both of our Indian bowlers, Auqib and Mukesh, are new ball bowlers. So, our plan was that we will use both of them because if you use Indian bowlers, you can add foreign players batting.

“So, that was the plan. But if you don’t succeed in the plan, you have to go to plan B. So, we didn’t succeed in the plan that we used Indian bowlers and somehow we made a mistake in that.”

That also meant that David Miller missed out on the clash against RR, while Pathum Nissanka only got his spot back due to an injury to teenaged opener Sahil Parakh. “It is difficult to fit in the eleven because there are only four overseas players. There is a reason for that – Sahil was injured and we wanted Pathum to get a chance.

“We wanted an additional bowler too. So, we played Pathum and we had to play two foreign fast bowlers and you can’t let Starc out and Lungi couldn’t play at that time. Our plan was that either Pathum or Miller will play. We didn’t have another opener because he was injured and so, we went with Pathum.”

Munaf signed off by firmly ruling out a return for opener Prithvi Shaw, citing the current success of the opening pair of Nissanka and KL Rahul. The duo have aggregated 300 runs from eight innings this season at an average of 37.5 and a strike rate of 172, including two half‑centuries and a stand of 110 runs coming against RR.

“Openers are making 100-150 runs and you are asking us to play Prithvi Shaw. From where should make him play? If the opening partnership is going for 100-250 runs, who should we replace with? We had to change it because Sahil got injured and Pathum has now made 62 runs in last game. So, I don’t think we should change it and we won’t change it because Sahil is injured.”

–IANS

nr/