"I am the worst"- Dale Steyn's honest admission ahead of James Anderson's final day in international cricket

Dale Steyn is undoubtedly one of the greatest fast bowlers to have graced the game. The former South Africa fast-bowler enjoyed a stunning career in international cricket, especially in Tests where he enjoyed unparalleled success against all oppositions irrespective of the conditions.

His pace and swing made him one of the toughest bowlers of the modern era. He played 93 Tests between 2004 and 2019 and retired as one of the most decorated fast bowlers of all time.

Dale Steyn picked up a record 439 wickets in the longest format of the game with the help of 26 five-wicket hauls. In ODIs and T20Is, he picked up 196 and 64 wickets respectively. Such was his domination with the ball in his prime that he remained at the number one spot in the ICC Test rankings for a record 263 weeks between 2008 and 2014.

I'm the worst person in the world at reading pitches: Dale Steyn

While Dale Steyn found it easy to trouble the batters during his playing days, when it came to reading the pitches, he found it extremely difficult. Generally, the bowlers try to read the surface in order to get an idea of the conditions. However, Dale Steyn found it difficult and also revealed the reason behind not trying to read the surface.

"No, I'm the worst person in the world at reading pitches. I should probably never do a pitch report in my life because I hated looking at a pitch because I always felt like the batters would always walk in there and say, 'have you seen the wicket? It's a batter's paradise," Dale Steyn told Sky Spots.

"And that was the worst thing I wanted in my mind. All I wanted to know was, where do I need to get the ball? In what area? So I can get a wicket. I didn't need that bad negativity," he added.

The South Africa legend revealed that he never looked at the pitches and used to get the idea of the condition only after delivering the first ball. Steyn stated that instead of looking at the surface, he believed more in bowling in the right area and creating pressure on the opposition batters.

"So I actually never looked at pitches. I would always read it from the first ball I bowled to kind of tell what the length that I needed to bowl. And I'd speak to the guy at point and I'd say, where was that? And normally there'd be a nice mark on the pitch.

"So you'd be able to see like, okay, that's about it. And then you can start to, you know, work on whether you've got to go a touch fuller or a touch shorter. But I absolutely hated looking at pitches because I just, I never wanted to fill myself with potential lots of runs in this wicket," said Dale Steyn.

"You know, if I knew that if I got the ball in the right area, created enough pressure and my partner on the other side did his job, we could get wickets. Whether it's court cover or nick off, it didn't matter. I was just planning on getting wickets. That was it," added the former pacer.

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