Steyn is the new gain !

Dale Willem Steyn gives an impression of a tiger that has just tasted blood, and become a man-eater. Aggressive, fiery, with the celebrations he involves in after every scalp he claims, he is the new face of the South African pace attack .Fast bowlers come in a variety of flavours. South Africa had Shaun Pollock who was relentless and untiring all through out his career, Allan Donald had the stare to sweat the batman along with the impressive in dipper and beautiful bowling action while Makhaya offered stamina and longevity with an unusual angle to discomfort the batsman . Nel has on field antics and sporty nature .But Steyn unlike all these is uncommon is like a fresh breeze, which energies you with a normal height and build , unlike most fast men, has an ability to take someone’s head off with a shiny red cherry.

Perhaps the most captivating trait is he can swing the ball away from the right-handers in excess of 90 miles an hour consistently and possesses a near unplayable yorker .He bowls pretty straight and delivering the ball from very close to the stumps, which explains the number of clean bowled dismissals. The ascension has been an accelerated one for Dale who seemed unripe on his test debut in 2004 .Steyn announced himself to Test cricket with a fast in-swinging delivery that left Marcus Trescothick ‘s stumps rearranged .However ,he faded from view after three matches against England in which he took eight wickets and conceded more than 400 runs. He had another go early in 2006 and, since then, he has become a nemesis to the batsman world over

To top it up, Dale Steyn signed off a dream season in Test cricket by sweeping all the major honours at the South Africa Cricket Awards on Tuesday night. Steyn won all the four awards he was nominated for which included SA Cricketer of the Year, Test Player of the Year, SA Players' Player of the Year and the SuperSport Fans' Cricketer of the Year.

The progress has been steep .However,Steyn needs to add one more arrow in his quiver and that is a genuine in swinger, which will fetch him a fortune .With now a new responsibility of the spearheading the attack, he has his task cut out .But his rise would be closely monitored, with real litmus test will come in England.

Steyn’s potential to join the very best who have marked out a run-up would be dependent on how quickly he develops a slower delivery and off cutter , which will eliminate the predictability ,the control to bowl the three quarter length , most importantly remain injury free .Plus, the real test of character will come when he will have a fewer wickets to show in good batting conditions .

So far its been a fairytale Picking up 78 wickets at 16.24 a piece in 12 tests ,and playing a dominant force behind South Africa's home series wins against New Zealand and West Indies with an unbelievable strike rate

He has stated that "he loves the buzz from bowling fast" and that he wants to be the quickest in the world

While Brett Lee is the most improved bowler and arguably the best fast bowler in the world ,Steyn has been a transformed bowler and looks the only bet to dethrone him .