India vs South Africa: Dale Steyn apologizes to Virat Kohli after his omission for T20I series

South Africa are scheduled to tour India in the September for three T20 Internationals and as many Tests. The visitors named the squads for both the series on Tuesday and took some big decisions. Faf du Plessis wasn’t picked for the T20Is as Quinton de Kock was appointed the skipper even as three uncapped players were named in the side. However, Dale Steyn missing the cut surprised many including the pacer who had made himself available for the series.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) selectors are looking forward to the T20 World Cup next year in Australia and decided to pick some of the young guns for the series. The likes of Temba Bavuma, Bjorn Fortuin and Anrich Nortje earned their maiden call-ups to the T20I side. But Steyn wasn’t pleased at all with his exclusion and he expressed his disappointment while responding to one of the journalists on Twitter.

The veteran first cleared that he had made himself available for the tour and then took a dig at the selectors stating that they probably missed his number while reshuffling the coaching staff. “I did… Obviously lost my number in the reshuffling of coaching staff,” Steyn’s tweet read.

I did… Obviously lost my number in the reshuffling of coaching staff.

— Dale Steyn (@DaleSteyn62) August 13, 2019

Selectors saving Steyn for the big games?

Meanwhile, the same journalist reported that the selectors were possibly saving Dale Steyn for the big series. This means that they didn’t consider India tour important which left the 36-year-old disappointed. Accordingly, he apologised to the Indian captain Virat Kohli and the fans on behalf of the selectors for not thinking India games as important ones.

As far as the tour is concerned, it will get underway with the first T20I to be played in Dharamsala on September 15. The remaining two matches then are scheduled to take place in Mohali and Bengaluru on September 18 and 22 respectively. The Test series will see South Africa making their first appearance in the ICC Test Championship which will begin on October 2 in Visakhapatnam.

Here’s Steyn’s tweet:

Apologies to Virat and a billion people for thinking they not

— Dale Steyn (@DaleSteyn62) August 13, 2019

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