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Brandon Moyo, [email protected]

THE past couple of years have seen the rise of Zimbabwe bowler Richard Ngarava on the international cricket scene and his consistency with the ball in hand has not gone unnoticed.

Consistency has been the order of the day for the 26-year-old left hander who has become hard to ignore on the international franchise cricket circuit. Ngarava has proven a lethal white-ball bowler, carrying his form from last year which saw him earn a maiden call-up to the International Cricket Council (ICC) Team of the Year for 2023.

Making his international franchise debut in the Lankan Premier League (LPL) in August last year, Ngarava has been making major in-roads in T20 franchise leagues with his match winning spells for the Chevrons doing the talking for him.

From the LPL to the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), and the International League T20 (ILT20), the paceman now finds himself rubbing shoulders with some of the world’s best at the ninth edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL).

He continues to soar high, making a name for himself, one that cannot be ignored.

It has been an exciting past few months for the highly rated Chevrons star who is Zimbabwe’s second leading all-time wicket taker in the shortest version of the game. In the PSL, Ngarava has been selected by the former Andy Flower coached Multan Sultans as a replacement for Olly Stone.

Sikandar Raza

The move to the PSL follows the six-foot-four fast bowler’s splendid performance for Zimbabwe last year. With his form from last year — where he picked up a massive 26 wickets in 15 matches while going at just 5,63 runs per over, Ngarava was picking up a wicket every 12,1 balls.

In his latest appearance in the franchise set-up, Ngarava picked 10 wickets in six innings with best figures of 4/30. He has proven a match winner and will be a valuable addition to the Multan Sultans team who are sitting at the top of the PSL with six wins and two defeats for their eight games.

He became the third Zimbabwean international in the PSL, joining Sikandar Raza and Blessing Muzarabani. Raza is in the books of two-time champions Lahore Qalandars while Muzarabani plays for Karachi Kings.

Ngarava is likely to be available for selection in Multan Sultans’ next game which is on Sunday against Islamabad United. 

Having arrived in Pakistan a day ago, he missed out on his new side’s close four runs defeat at the hands of Peshawar Zalmi on Tuesday evening.

It has been a memorable journey for Zimbabwe’s star bowler — one that promises to get even better with time as he looks set to scale greater heights. – @brandon_malvin