Dale Steyn ready to trade pace for fitness

Dale Steyn isn't your average Joe. He loves bowling fast, and those who've seen him will agree, that he loves to push batsmen on their backfoot with his pace and ferocity. His ardent fans, however, are more likely to see a different version of Steyn in the upcoming two-Test series against New Zealand as the South Africa pacer is now ready to trade pace for fitness.


Steyn has been struggling with a number of injuries now. A groin injury kept him out of the Test series in India last year and while he recovered from that, he was hit by a shoulder injury. The 33-year-old has said that his aim now would be to get through the 18 overs a day, even if it has to come at the cost of his pace.

"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.

"As I recovered from one (injury), I broke down on the other one and its only because I was going from 0 to 100 way too quickly. If you look at your fast cars, Ferraris, they always tell you drive it to 1000 kays (kms) 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."

He could be seen curbing his speed, but Steyn will not let his competitive edge wane, specially against an opposition that he enjoys playing against. "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.'"

While Steyn's form dipped, South Africa's performance too nosedived. After the Test series loss in India, they lost to England at home and failed to qualify for the tri-series final in the Caribbean. The 33-year-old pacer reckoned the team was raring to revive its fortunes. "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."