South Africa's pace spearhead Dale Steyn might feature in his last Cricket World Cup this year, as there is every chance that the fast bowler might retire from ODI-cricket to focus more on the long format of the game, where he has achieved the vast majority of his shinning landmarks.
Steyn, who has traditionally been used rather sparingly for 50-overs combat outside of major global tournaments, has played 96 career ODIs, but either been reportedly rested or absent for other reasons from a further possible 88 in the period, spanning some 10 years.
The figures reveal that limited-overs is very much Steyn's second area of emphasis for his country, with the purists' favourite, the five-day game, on top of his own affections by some distance, Sport24 reported.
Former South Africa bowling coach Vincent Barnes claims that Steyn, who has 396 scalps from 78 Tests and lies 12th on the all-time global list for Test wickets and second for South Africans behind Shaun Pollock on 421, might face difficulty in managing himself all the way to another World Cup.
This would be Steyn's second World Cup, following the 2011 event on the Subcontinent, with the next in England in 2019, and the paceman would turn 36 in the midst of it.
Barnes claims that it's obviously up to Steyn to decide what his future holds after this World Cup, but added that Test cricket has usually been where the desire and hunger lies more for the paceman. He claimed that if the fast bowler did decide to downscale or give up one format, it would probably be ODIs.
Former South Africa seamer and national selector, Craig Matthews, has echoed Barnes' thoughts and said that 36 might be pushing it a bit for a veteran Steyn to light up the 2019 tournament.
Matthews insisted that Steyn is the kind of guy whose requirement is all about bowling quick not the sort to slip into a medium-fast kind of mode as those limbs get older. So, he added that they should appreciate him while they can at this particular World Cup, even if the vast majority of the paceman's really standout performances don't actually come in the one-day arena.