Dale Steyn to miss South Africa tour of England due to shoulder injury

South African premier pace bowler Dale Steyn is all set to miss the South Africa’s tour to England that commences next month. Steyn will miss out on the important Test series as he has failed to recover from the shoulder injury. He had picked up the injury during the Perth Test against the Australian team in a fixture during late 2016. Since then, there have been several speculations about his probable return to Test cricket.

It was expected that Dale Steyn will be back for the England Tests and was likely to tour with South Africa A side in warm-up fixtures as well. However, as per the latest reports in the ESPNcricinfo, Steyn is likely to miss out on the series. He noted that the recovery is taking a little longer than expected. Hence, his chances of being on the tour is minimal.

“My recovery is going well but it is taking a little longer than I expected it to. I am able to do a lot of things, like running, hiking and gym work, but bowling is not one of them, and I won’t be ready in time,” Steyn quoted.

Targeting the home series return

He disclosed that the idea behind him being a part of the South African A side was to get some match fitness to his name. However, that seems to be a far cry for now. He is hoping to be fit before the home series against Bangladesh that will commence after the conclusion of the England series.

“Obviously, one of the reasons for me playing with the A side was so that I could get some match fitness before the Tests. So, before that Bangladesh series, I will need to play a bit. In a way it could be quite funny – South Africa will be playing a Test series in England and maybe at some ground down the road, Dale Steyn will be playing for another team,” joked the speedster.

Taking a longer recovery

Elaborating on the aspect of taking a longer recovery time, Steyn remarked that it is not easy to be fit again in quick time for a fast bowler. The recovery phase is always a lot longer for the faster bowlers compared to the other cricketers in the game.

“We have to understand that fast bowling is not something normal people do, so it’s going to take time. Normal people do things mostly below the shoulder line; it’s unusual to have something above the line except for things like bowling and tennis. I just have to be patient,” he conceded.