Proteas fast bowler Dale Steyn has backed Australia batsman David Warner to regain form in Test cricket.

Warner’s return to the longest format of the international game, after his suspension for last year’s ball-tampering during the tour of South Africa, was marked by a string low scores during the Ashes series.

The left-hander struggled to convert a fine stretch of form for the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2019 Indian Premier League and Australia at the World Cup into success at Test-match level. Instead, he managed a mere 95 runs in 10 innings against England and was dismissed several times by seamer Stuart Broad.

‘He is one of the best batters I have ever bowled to. He puts you under pressure from ball one on day one of a Test match,’ Steyn told the Sydney Morning Herald.

‘I think you have to take what he can give with you with what can happen. In this case, he has probably been found wanting with around the wicket to someone like Broad attacking that off-stump. Sometimes that can happen. But he will get into Australia and he will find some form.

‘He will be playing around his mates and around a home crowd and that can quickly change for him. I wouldn’t drop him at all – I would leave it as it is.’

Whether or not Warner will be selected for November’s Test series against Pakistan remains in the balance. Steyn, who retired from Test cricket earlier this year and will play for the Melbourne Stars in the 2018-19 Big Bash League, also praised fellow fast bowler Pat Cummins.

Cummins played all five of the Ashes Tests, while fellow seamers Mitchell Starc, James Pattinson and Peter Siddle were rotated.

‘It takes supreme athletes to bowl fast for five days in five Test matches. That is a heavy workload. I think Cummins is amazing. He is so fit and so strong. He is ridiculous. He is one of my favourite bowlers right now,’ he concluded.

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