Cricketing universe wishes Dale Steyn as he turns 34

As Dale Steyn turned 34 today, the Twitter world conveyed their birthday wishes to the fast bowler. He has been out of action since the end of 2016 and has also not been picked in the South African squad four-Test series against England that begins on July 6 because he has not fully recovered from the shoulder injury.

Steyn is often referred to as “Steyn gun” because he is considered as the best fast bowler in this era, in fact,  one of the best the game has seen, more so because of the lethal pace he possesses known to intimidate even the greatest batsmen.

The South African is the joint second-fastest to 400 Test wickets and has scalped 417 in total. He is the only fast bowler to have taken 5-wicket hauls against all Test playing nations (excluding Ireland and Afghanistan). He has also been the ICC Test Player of the Year in 2008 and was the Wisden Cricketer of the year in 2013.

Steyn dominated the number one spot in the ICC Test rankings during the peak of his career and even reclaimed the spot after he had returned following an injury last year. The speedster had been the number-one for a record 263 weeks between 2008 and 2014. He has twenty-six 5-wicket hauls in Tests and five 10-wickets haul in Tests.

In the last four years, he became extremely injury prone and missed out on most games in important tournaments like the World T20, the Champions Trophy and Test matches against oppositions like India and England. While his future in cricket after such a long lay-off is uncertain, especially in the shorter formats, he himself has been raring to bowl for the Proteas once again as seen in his tweets and Instagram posts. On his time off the field, he is often out fishing, surfing and cheering for the Proteas on the social media.

Wishes from cricketers around the world:

Towards the end of the day, Steyn tweeted to thank everyone who wished him.