‘Every effort’ made to get Steyn ready

What was supposed to have been a three-pronged South African blitz attack to bombard India in Southampton on Wednesday was reduced to just Kagiso Rabada on Tuesday as Dale Steyn was ruled out of not only the match but the entire World Cup.

Steyn came into the tournament under an injury cloud after ending his IPL stint early due to discomfort in the same bowling shoulder he broke in Australia in late 2016.

He had been earmarked to make his tournament bow in Wednesday’s match against India, but, according to team manager, Dr Mohammed Moosajee, he has now developed a fresh problem in his shoulder.

“Dale had scans after the IPL and they showed nothing significant, just inflammation of the tendons and three top specialists cleared him to play at the World Cup. The plan was for him to play in the third game, but once he started bowling again last week, a different problem surfaced, a shoulder impingement.

“Dale had a cortisone injection but it has not resolved the problem, therefore the decision was made to replace him. He is a champion bowler, so every effort was made to get him ready. But there are a lot of structures in the shoulder and this was unrelated to what happened to him previously,” Moosajee said at the Hampshire Bowl on Tuesday.

Highveld Lions left-arm swing bowler Beuran Hendricks, who has played just two ODIs, both against Pakistan in January, will replace Steyn.

Hendricks bowled 16 overs and took one for 81 in those two matches, but he has had more success in the 10 T20 internationals he has played, taking 16 wickets.

The 28-year-old will only arrive in England on Wednesday morning though, and with Lungi Ngidi out for 7-10 days after suffering a Grade I strain of his left hamstring, Rabada is the only out-and-out quick bowler who is fit.

It means Chris Morris will almost certainly have to take the new ball with Rabada, with captain Faf du Plessis hinting that the injury crisis has forced them to go back to their plan of a couple of years ago when they loaded the side with all-rounders. Morris, Andile Phehlukwayo and Dwaine Pretorius could well play in the same XI on Wednesday.

The other option is for South Africa to play both wrist-spinners, Imran Tahir and Tabraiz Shamsi.

“Injuries are never part of what you want and our x-factor depended on how brilliant our bowling attack is. But it’s been hard not to be able to get Lungi and Dale on the field, we haven’t yet been able to play our strongest XI.

“Obviously we now have to relook at that and we’ve still got to make sure our back-up plans are strong enough. We only have 13 to pick from and our options are to play all the all-rounders in one team, which will give us a long batting line-up to nine and hopefully we can then chase anything, or we play two spinners. Spin has not played that big a role here but Tabraiz Shamsi is an attacking option,” Du Plessis said.

The good news for the Proteas is that Hashim Amla is fit to play again after his concussion, although that does require a tough selection decision in terms of who is going to make way for him.

Given the weakness of the bowling attack, Du Plessis is probably going to want as many bowling options as possible, which means Aiden Markram and JP Duminy are probably going to be favoured ahead of David Miller.

For more sport your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.