Dale Steyn was one of the finest fast bowlers of his generation and he created problems for the best batters of his era. Whether bowling on the helpful tracks in South Africa and England, or trying make the most of the placid wickets in the sub-continent, Steyn was at his best on every surface and against all kinds of batting attacks. He finished his Test career with 439 wickets in 93 matches and is the highest wicket-taker for his country. Steyn was expected to pick up more wickets in Tests but the later part of his career was plagued with several injuries, which led him to miss a lot of international cricket. His stellar strike-rate of 42.3 is the best among all bowlers who have picked 300 or more wickets in the longest format and second only to compatriot Kagiso Rabada, among those who have picked 200 or more wickets.
He also picked up 196 wickets in 125 ODIs and 64 wickets in 47 T20Is. Steyn, who now dons the role of a cricket pundit and commentator, on Tuesday took to Twitter and made himself available to his fans for a question-and-answer session. As it happens during these sessions, excited fans took the opportunity to pick the speedster's brains on several issues and asked him a plethora of questions.
One Twitter user asked him a very interesting question: "In today's generation which batter do you think would have created a problem for you as a bowler?"
To this Steyn answer was just two letters -- "KL". He obviously meant Indian opening batsmen KL Rahul, who is considered one of the finest of this generation.
Rahul has been an integral part of the Indian team for the past couple of years. He has been in and out of the Indian Test side and made a good comeback on the tour of England.
Considered a Test specialist at the start of his career, when he scored a century in Australia, Rahul changed his game to suit all formats and has since been part of India's limited overs teams too. He played in the 2019 ICC World Cup after Shikhar Dhawan was injured during a match against Australia and was also a part of India's recent T20 World Cup campaign.
Rahul is being seen as a future great by many and this endorsement from someone as accomplished as Steyn proves the same.