South Africa’s Dale Steyn is widely deemed as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time and his record across formats is a testimony of it.

Whether it is swing, pace, extracting bounce from the pitch or nailing yorkers, Steyn has troubled some of the best in the business with his diverse skill set.

In 93 Tests, Steyn has claimed 439 wickets, while in 125 ODIs, he has bagged 196 scalps. In 47 T20Is, the right-arm speedster has picked up 64 wickets.

Now that Steyn has etched his name in the cricketing books as one of the finest pacers to grace the game, people may find it shocking to know that the Proteas cricketer once aspired to become a batsman.

Speaking to Sanjay Manjrekar on a chat show for ESPNcricinfo, Steyn recently revealed that during his academy days, he batted at No. 2 and once received the Batsman-of-the-Year award as well.

However, after meeting the likes of AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis, he changed his goals.

“When I was in my first academy year after school, I had a bad hamstring injury. So about six months, I didn’t really bowl. So, I decided I was going to bat. I batted at number three and ended up getting Batsman-of-the-Year at my academy. I mean it’s ridiculous. And then I went to Pretoria to join the Titans,” Steyn said.

“When I got there, I met Faf (du Plessis), AB (de Villiers). Then I started to rub shoulders with Alviro Pietersen. I quickly realized that I was a decent batter but these guys were batsmen. And, I thought if I am even going to play for South Africa or for Titans, I need to focus primarily on my bowling,” he added.

Dale Steyn also quipped that he regrets his decision of becoming a speedster as the all-rounder tag would have fetched him a hefty sum in the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction table.

“I little bit regret it right now because I think I could have averaged closer to 20 and who knows gone for more money in the IPL if I was a better all-rounder like Chris Morris.”