Dale Steyn fit and raring to go for Glamorgan debut
South African fast bowler Dale Steyn, who is going through an uncharacteristic patchy form of late, said that he is all set for making a debut for English side Glamorgan in the Natwest T20 Blast on Wednesday. The 32-year-old revealed that he has undergone a lot of training and also added that he add a couple of tricks to his already impressive repertoire.
Steyn was ‘rested’ for South Africa’s upcoming tri-series in the Carribean involving West Indies and Australia with the selectors claiming that they wanted the former World No 1 to be in the best shape possible for the Proteas’ Test series at home against New Zealand in August. Though he has been troubled a number of injuries over the past year, Steyn feels playing cricket is the best thing he can do to keep himself fit.
The opportunity to play for Glamorgan opened up for Steyn when fellow fast bowler Morne Morkel, who was originally signed up by the County side for the T20 competition, was selected in the South African ODI squad. Steyn said that he was looking to play under the captaincy of former Proteas international Jacques Rudolph at Glamorgan and revealed how the opportunity cropped up out of the blue.
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"Morne Morkel was supposed to come here and he got selected to go to the Caribbean and I was rested, but I just wanted to get out and play some cricket," Steyn said, as reported by cricket.com.au. "He said 'Maybe you should get hold of Jacques Rudolph because I was going to go to Glamorgan', and within an hour I was on the phone to (Glamorgan chief executive) Hugh Morris, by the next day I was on my way to get a visa and here I am.”
Despite being a household name in the IPL over the past eight seasons, Steyn managed only one appearance for the Gujarat Lions franchise in IPL 2016 with the Suresh Raina-led side opting to overpower their overseas quota of four foreign players mostly with a star-studded batting line-up.
Though disappointed at having not played more matches, Steyn said that watching the matches from a spectator’s point of view was an altogether different experience.
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"I've played nine years of IPL so I've seen it all," Steyn said. "Unfortunately, this year I had to sit on the sidelines, but that was okay as it gives you a different perspective. I watched the games from the side, sat back without that pressure to perform and win games. It can be quite overwhelming to continually go out under pressure to win.”
Talking about his preparations for the Natwest T20 Blast, Steyn said that he has been working hard on developing his skills and feels that he is bowling even faster than before.
"I got a lot of training done, which means I've got a couple of new tricks in the arsenal. So it was a different kind of IPL for me but now I'm ready to go. I've been bowling fast, my body's feeling good and I just want to play some cricket for Glamorgan now. I'm just excited to be here because I haven't played a lot of cricket this year," Steyn said.