‘Fisherman’ Steyn willing to swap pace for fitness

The day fast-bowling fans have been dreading has finally arrived: Dale Steyn has grown up.

South Africa’s supercharged pace spearhead will take a back seat of sorts when he returns to the Test team, with a focus on staying fit even if it means being slightly less fast.

“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. 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,” Steyn said at the launch of the New Zealand Test series in Durban. “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.”

Steyn’s more measured approach comes after he experienced first hand the risks of doing too much, too quickly last summer. After a groin strain kept Steyn out of three of South Africa’s four Tests in India, he tried to rush his way back and broke his shoulder. “As I recovered from one, I broke down on the other one and its only because I was going from 0 to 100 way too quickly,” Steyn said. “If you look at your fast cars, Ferraris, they always tell you drive it to 1000 kays (kms) before …

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