Shane Bond: Siraj is superior; good to see emergence of Afridi, Madushanka, Coetzee

Shane Bond’s profession was tormented by accidents, however when he bowled, it was an exciting sight to behold. One of the quickest bowlers of all time, he’s now having fun with his function as a coach.

After an extended stint with Mumbai Indians, the New Zealander has joined Rajasthan Royals as its bowling coach for the brand new IPL season. But, earlier than that he has one other project – because the coach of Paarl Royals on the SA20, South Africa’s franchise-based league.

“I am really excited we could play in front of a crowd of 25,000, or 10,000 at home,” Bond advised Sportstar. “And we have got a good squad.”

He is wanting ahead to working with the bowlers at Rajasthan Royals. “It is a chance for me to work with Adam Zampa, R. Ashwin, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan,” he mentioned. “We have a good team and I don’t mind wearing pink; I quite like it as a colour in terms of fashion sense.”

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His affiliation with the IPL goes again to 2010, when he performed for Kolkata Knight Riders. “Eden Gardens was a spectacular ground to play at, super noisy, and I made a lot of friends,” he mentioned. “It was a great experience for me playing alongside Chris Gayle, Sourav Ganguly, David Hussey and Ajit Agarkar, who is now the chairman of selectors for India.”

FILE PHOTO: Mumbai Indians’ Jasprit Bumrah with Shane Bond at a observe session.
| Photo Credit:
Vivek Bendre

As a coach with Mumbai Indians, he mentioned it was good working with the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav once they have been younger. “It felt nice seeing them develop into international players and then world-class players; it has been fun to be a small part of that as well,” he mentioned. “My nine years at Mumbai was a fantastic time.”

The IPL has helped India unearth a number of pacers through the years, and Bond is impressed with the best way Mohammed Siraj is bowling now. “He is awesome at the moment,” he mentioned. “You have got a guy like Mohammed Shami out injured, but the others can come in and fill the stocks and you can rotate those bowlers around and still have success.”

He is glad to see younger pacers rising from the world over. “You are seeing guys like Shaheen Afridi emerge, but you forget how young he is,” Bond mentioned. “He has had some injury problems, and you forget he is 23 years of age, and the expectation on the young guy has been massive. We also saw the emergence of a lot of young, good fast bowlers at the World Cup, like Dilshan Madushanka and Gerald Coetzee.”