Makhaya Ntini’s son Thando in Dinesh Lad’s tutelage this summer

Dinesh Lad, the childhood coach of the likes of India captain Rohit Sharma and all-rounder Shardul Thakur, is currently coaching South African pacer Makhaya Ntini’s son Thando at the Swami Vivekanand School ground at Gorai Extension, Borivali. It’s the same ground on which Rohit and Shardul learnt their cricket from Lad. “Thando has been training under me for the past two days.

He is here till June 2,” Lad tells TOI. While Ntini took 390 Test wickets in an epic career, the 21-year-old Thando is finding his feet in the game. A left-hand batsman and a right-arm seamer, he was a member of South Africa’s 2018 Under-19 World Cup team and has played for Western Province and Kwa-Zulu Natal (Dolphins) in South Africa’s domestic cricket.

In 14 first-class games, the 21-year-old all-rounder has scored 1,038 runs and taken 32 wickets. In 14 T20 games, he has scored 409 runs and taken 16 wickets. Lad wows for Thando's talent.

“Mark my words, in another two years, he’ll play for South Africa. He's a very good all-rounder," says the famous coach. Explaining how Thando landed up from Johannesburg to his academy, Lad says, "A friend at Railways was the masseur for the South Africa Legends in the Road Safety World Series T20 in 2021.

That's where he met Makhaya Ntini. Right now, it's off-season in South Africa. The other thing is that due to lack of finance, Cricket South Africa has staged no practice for the emerging players, something that they do every year.

Ntini asked my friend if there was a good coach in India to whom he could send his son to. My friend told him about me and how I've coached Rohit and Shardul. He asked my friend to talk to me about it, and I agreed to coach his son.