Dale Steyn on return: 'I didn't think that I would be playing cricket again'

Dale Steyn is back. The South African pacer claimed seven wickets in a recently concluded three-match ODI series against Austrlia. The peformance signalled that Steyn is back to full fitness after almost two years of battling injuries. 

Steyn looked prime condition and regularly clocked in the late 140 kphs during the series. 

Steyn admitted that there was time during the last two years when believed his professional cricket career was over for good. 

“Not so long ago I didn’t think that I would be playing cricket again,” Steyn was quoted as saying by Sports24 on Thursday. 

“When I broke my shoulder I had this real drive to come back, but it took a long time. It took a solid six months before I could bowl again and I kept joking with my physio saying it was like U9 pace … I could get my arm over but there was no momentum.”

He continued, “I knew that once I started playing again it would be like riding a bike. I’ve done it for so long and I’m blessed with a very natural action and things come quite easy.”

Apart from physical fitness, Steyn had to fuel his mental comeback as well and decided to look at the positives during the process.  

“A bit of mental strength needed to come into play watching the guys play and not being able to participate, but in the end I think it’s worked out nicely. I took every day as a blessing. The thinking was that if I could play one more game it would be amazing and, as a matter of fact, I broke it down to even bowling one more ball, one more over and taking one more wicket,” he said.

Steyn will be in contention to make the South Africa side for 2019 World Cup. However, he’s not thinking about that right now.

“The World Cup is still a long way away. I think right now my biggest influence in that World Cup side is to come in and really push buttons where I can. I know that when I play well you will see that other guys start to play well too. You’ll see KG [Kagiso Rabada] is performing even better because there is good competition and rivalry within the side."

“When that side gets selected, whenever it does, that’s somebody else’s job and we’ll worry about that when it comes. Right now I just want to play the next game available to me,” he said.