Richard Ngarava was born on 29th December 1997 in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. The young left-arm pacer's talent was evident right from his early playing days. He was picked for the 2016 U-19 World Cup at the age of 18 and soon went on to make his T20 debut for Zimbabwe against Free State in the Africa T20 Cup.

2017 was the launching year for Richard as he made his List A debut for Zimbabwe A against a touring Afghanistan A side. This resulted in his ODI debut in the same month against Afghanistan at home where he picked up his maiden international wicket. He ended the year making his first-class debut for Rising Stars against Mid-West Rhinos in the Logan Cup where he made a mark by claiming three wickets. He continued to ply his trade in the regional and provincial tournaments performing consistently.

Ngarava was in line to make his Test debut against Bangladesh towards the end of 2018, but an injury kept him from traveling with the squad. A year later, he made his T20I debut against Singapore in the Singapore Tri-Nation Series, a tournament that had Nepal as the third team. In 2021, Ngarava was named in the Test squad for a series against Afghanistan but did not get an opportunity to make his debut. A couple of months later, he finally made his Test debut against Pakistan, picking up two wickets in the game.