Dale Steyn ready to cut down on pace for fitness

33-year old Dale Steyn has been realistic about his future with the South African side following some serious fitness issues that have crept up over the years. While Steyn is certainly not getting any younger, he has ruled out any possible retirement decision for at least couple of years. Speaking about his predicament of bowling quickly, Steyn stated that it was becoming all the more difficult to bowl at speeds in excess of 145 km/hr.

Speaking about it in detail, Steyn also added that his primary focus was on completing 18 overs in a day of a Test match. “If I must be realistic about it, running in and bowling 145kph all day when you haven’t done it for a long time is going to be really tough,” Steyn said in Durban on Tuesday (August 16). “Objective number one is to get through 18 overs a day, maybe dropping in pace, but being as effective as possible. 140 is going to be enough.

Speaking about his injury in the past year, Steyn added that he recovered and sustained another within a short space of time, only to have a horrible shoulder injury soon after. “As I recovered from one (injury), I broke down on the other one and it’s only because I was going from 0 to 100 way too quickly. If you look at your fast cars, Ferraris, they always tell you to drive it to 1000 keys (km) before you hit 200-plus. I obviously didn’t put in 1000 kays, I was just trying to hit 200 and then I bust the shoulder. There’s going to be a day when I can rev it up to 145 and maybe even 150 but we’ve got somebody like KG (Kagiso Rabada) who can do that now.”

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The upcoming home series against New Zealand has been something Dale Steyn has been looking forward to in a long while. “I like playing against them and I have had personal success against them,” he said. “I got Guptill out in the CPL, nicked him off. Straight away he came to me and said, ‘I can’t wait to come to South Africa,’ and I said, ‘Neither can I.'”

The 33-year old pacer also added the importance of being in good form. “We get the team back up the rankings by winning games and having guys that play good cricket in the team,” he pointed out. “We will miss our captain AB (de Villiers), but Faf (du Plessis) steps up and people need to step up. I am back in the side and I am determined to get the team there and when I put my head down to something, I mean it.

“Hopefully, we can get into the top three and then maybe one day be No.1 again. We have the potential but it’s hard. It’s going to be a process of two or three years of winning series and winning them convincingly.”

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