67 overs without a wicket. What's wrong with Dale Steyn?

The start of India’s tour of South Africa seems like it happened in a land far, far away. Then Dale Steyn was the world’s number one Test bowler… he was charging in, bowling fast, slipping in the threatening bouncer, handing out some lip service and it took Rohit Sharma 16 balls to even put bat on ball. So bad was it that come the Tests, India feared for much worse. In the ODIs, there are rules to hold back the fast bowlers… to make them ’less hostile’, more playable. But in the Tests, there are no such restrictions – the bowlers are allowed to come into their own – they can also bowl longer spells, be even more aggressive (like Mitchell Johnson) and have more close-in fielders to take the catches. It is also perhaps worth mentioning that the first Test was being played at the Wanderers – the same venue where India were 105-5 at one stage (they finished with 217) in the first ODI. The venue for the second Test was Durban – where in the second ODI, India were bowled out for 146. [caption id=“attachment_1308523” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Have India figured Dale Steyn out? AP[/caption] The venues incited fear in everyone watching. But the Indian team had a plan and they had self-belief to carry it out. And now, on day 1 of the Durban Test, India seem to have blunted Steyn’s sharp edge. The South African paceman has gone 67 overs without taking a wicket since dismissing Shikhar Dhawan in the first innings in Johannesburg. There isn’t as much talk and even the pace has dropped. He looks like a man out of ideas; he looks like a man who has been sorted out by the Indians. Even though this is a pretty small sample size, here’s a look at his average and strike-rate in this series. Avg: 214 as against his career avg of 23.21. SR: 432.0 as against his career SR of 42.5. Wickets: 1 wicket in 72 overs as against 341 wickets in 69 Tests/2419 overs. At the forefront of India’s plan were the Test specialists – Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara. The duo have been patient – they have left the ball outside the off-stump and forced Steyn to bowl at them. And when he does that, they pick him for runs on the leg-side. The short ball that worked so well for Steyn in the ODIs has been left well alone after the Dhawan dismissal. The compact technique of the Indians has been another revelation. No one seems to be going for the extravagant shots – they are trying to keep it tight, trying to make the most of their time in the middle and that it something we have never seen generations of Indian cricketers do. Honestly, if Duncan Fletcher is the man responsible for this change then he needs to keep doing whatever he is doing. For Steyn, however, this cannot be easy. He is getting no wickets and he is getting booed by SA fans for doing what he thought was best for the country. In the first Test, he was in the middle with Vernon Philander as the match made it’s way to a thrilling climax. But he was seen instructing his batting partner to be cautious, which led to the duo being booed off the field by their own supporters despite salvaging an excellent draw from a game that India dominated for the first four days. “Dale was really upset, he struggled to handle it,” AB de Villiers told reporters before the start of the second Test. “It really took Graeme [Smith] and a few guys to help him handle it immediately, because of the crowds, the booing and everyone criticising him and Vernon (Philander). They took a lot of strain and it was up to the team to pull through that but it was really tough.” So on and off the field, he has been feeling the pressure and that might be affecting his bowling. Even on the first day of the second Test, he seemed a little out of it for the first 10 overs he bowled. The Indian batsmen creamed him for 44 runs in those over. But he seemed to be finding his rhythm towards the end of the day before bad light intervened. He started coming around the wicket – that seemed to rile up the batsmen and rev up Steyn’s engine a bit. But if South Africa are to have any chance in the second Test, they will need Steyn to go full throttle for the rest of the Test. He can easily get it back but India will hope he does it against another opponent.