Dale Steyn hints at skipping Bangladesh ODI series
South African fast bowler Dale Steyn has set his sights on playing the next ODI World Cup in 2019. Widely considered the best fast bowler going around in World Cricket at the moment, the 31-year old has given a hint that he could skip the limited-overs leg of his side’s Bangladesh tour in July.
"At this stage of my career, I'd rather be saving myself to go and participate in the major tournaments, rather than wasting the few balls I have left in my career in a Bangladesh match," Steyn said.
"I'd rather go to Bangladesh to help and support future South African bowlers, and use what is left of the 10,000 or 20,000 deliveries that I have in my body for the big tournament. That's where I'm at personally. But at the beginning of my career, I would have done everything. I would have gone every tournament and to every place. But I've done it all now."
“It might sound very cocky or naïve of me, or self-centered, but I want to win a World Cup for my country. And they only come around once every four years. If you're playing in the Twenty20 World Cup, luckily they come around every second year. So with all due respect to places like Bangladesh or Zimbabwe, going and playing three ODIs in Bangladesh does nothing for my confidence as opposed to knowing that I'm going to a World Cup"
If that’s indeed the case, then South Africa will be without AB de Villiers, JP Duminy and Morne Morkel apart from Steyn during the tour as all three of them are expecting the birth of their first child during that period.