The return of Dale Steyn to the game of cricket is quite a story in the world cricket. After being out from the International cricket for quite a few months, he made a stunning comeback after the recovery from his shoulder injury. Meanwhile, he landed in India to play Indian Premier League for Royal Challengers Bangalore.
In a press conference, Dale Steyn got quite a few questions on various topics. They started with his plans for the upcoming ICC World Cup 2019 and also asked his opinion on the impact of ICC Rankings going into ICC World Cup 2019.
Australians were losing and now, started winning – Dale Steyn
Speaking of the rankings, he asked reporters to throw out rankings out of the window during the ICC World Cup 2019. He gave an example citing the Windies team, who played brilliant cricket to thrash England team. Dale Steyn also highlighted Australia, who started winning after a fine time.
“I think you really need to take rankings and throw it out of the window. Rankings these days don’t mean anything. I don’t even know what ranking West Indies have, and they just beat England. Australia were losing, and then they’ve started winning again,” Steyn said at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
You should go thinking about victory for ICC World Cup 2019:
Further, he quoted that the team should always head into the tournament thinking about the victory. Or else, Dale Steyn feels that they should not go. He also spoke on the chances of South Africa for the showpiece event.
“I don’t think South Africa has lost an ODI series in one and a half years but no one gives us a chance and then somebody does,” he said, speaking of his team’s recent high success rate in ODIs. (South Africa have lost 2 out of 13 series in this period). If you’re not going to the World Cup expecting to win, then you probably shouldn’t go. But I’m not going to lie, we have some fantastic players,” Steyn added.
All in all, it seems like Dale Steyn has been pretty confident for the upcoming grand event. As Steyn said, rankings won’t make an impact on the tournament, as the game of cricket always relies on the skills of the team on a certain day. South Africa will play their first game in the tournament against England, which is the tournament opener.