Steyn promises to make impact working with Waqar

South Africa’s speed sensation Dale Steyn believes that there are still plenty of things left for him to learn in the international cricket despite establishing himself as one of the greatest fast bowlers in the world cricket today. Steyn, who will feature for Sun Risers Hyderabad in IPL, is very excited about playing against Allan Donald.

Steyn, who has already worked with Donald, is looking to take the advice of Waqar Younis, the bowling coach of the Sun Risers.

“I’m looking forward to it, to be honest, I really am,” said Steyn on Thursday. “In the South African side, we’ve got Allan Donald at the moment and he was one of the guys I used to watch when I was young, growing up. It was great to have him, to pick his brain over the last two years he’s been with us. And now I’m being given another opportunity where I get to work with someone like Waqar. We all know what a fantastic player he was … an incredible bowler of reverse swing, the yorker and good extreme pace at the same time. I’m living out my childhood dreams right now, being able to work with these guys.

“I don’t think you stop learning from this game, even when you retire. I think there’s still things to learn. The game is developing all the time. Nobody is an expert in the game, unfortunately. That’s the nature of the beast. The game moves forward and we’re just part of the show so there’s still lot to learn. That’s the exciting part of it”.

Steyn who cleaned up Chris Gayle in the fifth edition of the IPL, which sent Royal Challengers back home, is very eager to bowl to Gayle once again. “Oh Chris Gayle, yeah. It was exciting,” said Steyn. “The previous year we played against RCB, I bowled well. I maybe even got the Man of the Match award. It was nice to play against my old team. We’re one-up on them, it was worth it.

“Every year, the batsmen are finding new shots, finding new scoring areas. Bowlers are finding ways to restrict them. If you just watch someone like AB de Villiers batting at the moment, you kinda look for a weakness and there’s not many. And he’s just one of a handful of players that have developed his skills like that. The challenge this year is to sit down and work out ways by which I can make a difference in the game in only 24 balls because that’s the only part I can play in the game. When you’re an opening batsman, you can play for 20 overs, 120 balls … I get only 24 balls to influence the game. The challenge for me is to make a massive impact in the game in a very short space.”

He also suggested a drastic change in Twenty20 Cricket. “I would make run outs count as a wicket for the bowler. At the end of the day, there’s not a lot of run outs. But at least if there’s a run out, you get that wicket, you were a part of it. You bowled the ball that doesn’t go into the archives as nothing,” reasoned Steyn. “And that’s only in T20 cricket. I mean, if you can get out with a perfectly legitimate delivery being a free hit, then a wicket to a bowler off a run out should count.”