Dale Steyn's comeback gives cricket fans one more chance to celebrate a great career

2017 was a difficult year for the well-wishers and stakeholders of the South African cricket as they had learned to live without their two talisman AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn. At times, they also had to play without Kagiso Rabada, who was suspended for a Test for accumulating demerit points or without Faf du Plessis, when he was injured. But 2018 had promised them a whole lot more. ABD was returning, Steyn gun was ready to fire the bullets, and India were left with no choice than counting the jitters. Steyn, together with Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada, and Morne Morkel- the pace department was one to be feared. 

But, looking back, it actually started with an inauspicious of beginnings. When Steyn had started taking his first stride in the international cricket in December 2004, he was quickly termed as another wayward bowler to have come out of SA’s franchise cricket. There was no control over the ball, and despite taking 32 wickets from the first eight matches in the following two years, he conceded runs at an average of 35.13, which had no trace of a bowler who was supposed to fill in the big shoes of Shaun Pollock in the following years. But once the Steyn Version 2.0 emerged, he had been a tour de force of exquisite skill and inexplicable audacity.

The two-year period from December 2006 to April 2008 saw the big man taking 88 wickets at an average of 16.68 and the world saw the arrival of a man, who was there to take the legacy of South Africa’s great pacers like Allan Donald, Lance Klusener, Makhaya Ntini, Mfuneko Ngam forward. While the number of wickets and average are just insane, the strike rate revealed a lot about Steyn's character. 

As mentioned on the above table, one can easily note that Steyn’s career strike-rate of 41.50 is an astounding number, the like of which hasn’t been seen as often in the history of the game. However, more than the figure itself, Steyn has achieved this through a career that has already spanned 86 Tests over 14 years. To understand the importance of Steyn’s numbers, let’s do some further number crunching. Considering all the bowlers to have played a minimum of 30 Tests, the closest to Steyn’s strike-rate is the inimitable Waqar Younis, who has a strike rate of 43.5 in his glorious career. Given a 20-Test limit, only English great Sydney Barnes comes closest with 41.7.

While none would cease to admit Steyn’s ability with the red cherry, he has unfairly been blamed as an injury-prone player. But a fact to be noted that until November 2015 Test series against New Zealand, he had mostly remained injury-free and continued to be a part of the South African jigsaw, in every match - pretty much like Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock, two great South African bowlers who faced niggles but remained injury-free for impressively long periods of their careers. 

But, the law of average caught him soon enough as he became a bowler vulnerable to the shoulder injury. However, as a matter of fact, he has still been that lethal best with the ball and can put fears of god into the mind of best of the batsmen in the world and is still the master of swing and movement off the seam. The Sri Lanka series may prove to be the last riddle for him to prolong his glorious career, one that has seen everything, and mostly, the highest peak. Indeed, his legacy will not be decided by how he performs in the Emerald Isle, but this is definitely, going to be an emotive experience for all cricket fans, who have missed the greatest bowler of the generation for the longest time. This is the chance to celebrate one of the finest exponents of the modern-day cricket.