South Africa pacer Dale Steyn who recently announced retirement from all formats of the game, has backed young Kagiso Rabada to overtake him and become the highest wicket-taker in Tests for Proteas.
While the pacer is confident of the skillset Rabada possesses, he has doubts over how many matches would South Africa get to play considering the COVID-19 situation across the country.
“I think he will. More importantly, will South Africa, after Covid, play as many Test matches as we used to and allow him to get there? He probably will anyway, but if we do play a similar number of Tests then he definitely – fitness permitting,” Steyn told in an interview with RNS Global Advisory.
“He’s just a phenomenal athlete and a wicket-taking machine. So if Test cricket maintains its status and T20 cricket doesn’t continue its march to take over the calendar, then he will definitely take the record. There’s no question in my mind,” he added.
The South African then went on to talk about how he has enjoyed comparisons with England’s James Anderson and also lauded the latter and Imran Tahir for their passion and fitness levels proving age is just a number.
“Jimmy is a machine and he’s just got bowling down to a tee. He’s just unbelievable how he keeps going and how he still wants to keep going during this period now. It’s just intense.
He wants to keep performing and he’s fit, and he wants to prove that you can be 40, I suppose even 40-plus, and still do what you love doing at the very highest level. Imran Tahir is another great example of that,” the 38-year-old concluded.
Steyn had surpassed the legendary all-rounder Shaun Pollock’s 421 Test wickets back in 2018 by dismissing Fakhar Zaman. Overall, the right-arm quick picked 439 Test wickets to his name at 22.95 in 93 matches.
