Dale Steyn has heaped praise on Australian opener David Warner and warned the Australian selectors against dropping the left-hander after a horrific Ashes series.
Steyn is one of the best fast bowlers in world cricket and if he considers someone as ‘one of the best he has bowled to’, he should certainly not be dropped from the squad. The question of dropping Warner has come up after he averaged just 9.5 in the Ashes series, which was his comeback to the Test side after sitting out for a year.
Steyn praised Warner saying, “He's one of the best batters I've ever bowled to. He puts you under pressure from bowl one on day one of a Test match. You have to take what he can give you with what can happen. In this case, he's been found wanting around the wicket against someone like Broady (Stuart Broad) attacking that off stump. Sometimes that can happen.”
He believes that Warner is one cricketer who will not turn inefficient after just one poor series. He is also confident of the southpaw getting back in form over the Australian summer.
“He'll get to Australia, he'll find some form, he'll be playing around his mates and around his home crowd and that can quickly change for him. World class players don't become rubbish overnight, especially over one tour. He'll be fine, I wouldn't drop him at all. I'd leave it as it is," the South African said after joining the Melbourne Stars for the Big Bash League.
READ ALSO: Dale Steyn joins Melbourne Stars for six games in BBL 2019-20
He also spoke highly about the other comeback man, Steve Smith, who was at the other side of the spectrum and hardly ever failed during the entire five-match series. He revealed that it gets tough to get such batsmen out who don’t follow proper technique.
The 36-year-old said, “When I bowled to batters like Michael Vaughan or Jacques Kallis who (were) classical, technically perfect, sound batters, I always found that I could get them out. It was only the weird guys that came around, like Shiv Chanderpaul and Steve Smith, they really confuse you about the line you should be bowling. Whether that should be on the stumps (or) outside the stumps.”
“Steve has come, and with his technique that he's naturally developed, he's just confusing bowlers left, right and centre. They literally don't know where to bowl to this guy. And while they're trying to work that out, he's clubbing them all over the place and scoring runs at the same time. He's just in a league of his own right now and I'm very happy that I don't have to play Test matches against him ever again. He's wonderful, he's got a great eye and a very difficult and weird technique to work out, which is working for him beautifully,” he added.
(Source: cricket.com.au)
