SA would pack less bang without Steyn fireworks
ALL EYES ON LATE FITNESS TEST
THERE were bangs galore in Bangalore yesterday because of Diwali, which even in daylight hours was marked by exploding crackers that rent the air randomly all over this rackety city. And, for the third straight day, there was rain.
How the latter did not soak the fuses and thus deaden the din was anyone ’ s guess. Divine intervention, perhaps.
SA might need something like it to get Dale Steyn onto the park on Saturday. A groin strain took him out of the attack for India ’ s second innings in the first Test in Mohali and, spinners ’ pitch or not, the visitors missed his presence.
Steyn comes running down a mountain of achievement at batsmen, but he is much more than a player in this SA team. Not unlike AB de Villiers or Hashim Amla, he reminds his comrades who they are as a band of men and how they have reached heights they might never have scaled without leaning on giants like him.
Ask yourself which opponents and what pitch would cause Steyn to be omitted and there is only one answer: none.
So his fitness test, scheduled for today during SA ’ s first training ses- sion since Monday, will be among the most closely watched events of a tour not short of attention.
And yet there was no stress to be seen in Steyn as he posed gleefully for selfies with agog fans at the airport on Monday as SA travelled from Chandigarh to Bangalore.
If Steyn doesn ’ t make it, Morne Morkel seems over his quadriceps problem and would make a like-for- like but not quite seamless swap: fine fast bowler that Morkel is, he is no Dale Steyn.
The other side of that coin is the expected return of JP Duminy from his hand injury, probably at the expense of Simon Harmer. This would add significantly to SA ’ s ranks in terms of balance, experience and – as with Steyn – presence.
As much as Steyn is about fire, Duminy is about ice. And if you put fire and ice in the same XI you get water too hot for most opponents to handle.