South Africa’s Dale Steyn Rules out of World Cup Due to Shoulder Injury

Dale Steyn of South African cricket team has been ruled out of ICC World Cup after failing to recover from his already existing shoulder injury.

On Tuesday 4th June 2019, South Africa experienced a huge injury blow as fast bowler Dale Steyn was ruled out of WC 2019 because of an unaddressed shoulder injury. The ICC confirmed the news and said that the right-arm pacer has experienced a second injury which has not been treated. Steyn has been replaced by a left-arm fast bowler Beuran Hendricks after being approved from the Event Technical committee for the remainder of the tournament.

The fifth highest ODI wicket-taker of all time from South Africa, Steyn withdrew from the Indian Premier League (IPL) due to the same reason and missed the first two games at the World Cup.

Steyn, the South African fast bowler, had surgery for this issue in 2016 and experienced issues with his shoulder before and since that procedure. This has been a recurring problem for him and he will be unavailable for surely a predictable amount of time.

South Africa began this tournament with two losses; defeats from Bangladesh and England in the opening fixtures. On Wednesday 5th June, they will have to take on India at the Hampshire Bowl in Southampton. Now they will have to go into the crucial fixture and the remainder of the tournament without Dale Steyn.

On the other side, Beuran Hendricks made his ODI debut this year in January against Pakistan. Although Hendricks has been limited so far in the ODI cricket with simply one wicket from two matches, he had been more successful in the T20 Internationals with 16 wickets at an average of 18.93.

Hendricks has the real pace to bowl, at times, reaching even 140kph along with swinging the ball late. Being a left-arm fast bowler, he has some great variations to offer to the South African attack.