Former New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond, who took 259 international wickets in his career and who will always be remembered as one of the fastest bowlers to have played the game of cricket feels the Kiwis have a great chance of winning the World Test Championship final vs India. The Black caps have suffered a number of heartbreaks on the world stage, including the two back to back ODI World Cup final losses in 2015 and 2019. The heartbreak of the 2019 loss, where they got the short end of the stick thanks to the boundary count rule and lost to England, is still felt by name across the cricketing fraternity.
Bond, who also has a deep Indian connection, thanks to his long association with the Mumbai Indians as bowling coach, was the guest on episode 2 of the new Times of India sports podcast, Sportscast, and talked about various things, including what a big achievement it is for the Kiwis to find themselves in the final of the World Test Championship.
“We are a very small country. Always seen as the dark horse, the underdog. In the last eight years in particular the team has made two World Cup finals and tied one. That’s the way I see it. And got really close. For a country of our population, our resources, our finances to do that and now find ourselves in the WTC (final) is an incredible effort. Someone like me, who has played for the National team, I take a huge sense of pride in it. And I know everybody here is very excited about the Test match and think that we have a huge chance of winning,” Bond said on TOI Sportscast.
The fact that the Black Caps also played two full Tests vs England ahead of the WTC final, while Team India could only play an intra-squad game could also be a big factor in the final outcome of the game. And Bond talked about that also.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better scenario to play India in England with no practice. Us coming off two Test matches. We are primed to win something. So I am hoping that some of the hard luck stories that we have had in the last couple of World Cups, we will flip the script this time and lift up that mace and be the champions, which will be pretty special, pretty cool for our sport over here, because cricket is the number two sport in the country and for us to achieve that (win WTC Final) will be fantastic,” Bond said on TOI Sportscast.
You can listen to the full Shane Bond episode on TOI Sportscast here
You can also catch the episode under the name TOI Sportscast on Spotify, Amazon music, Google podcasts, Gaana, Saavn and other platforms
Bond, who also has a deep Indian connection, thanks to his long association with the Mumbai Indians as bowling coach, was the guest on episode 2 of the new Times of India sports podcast, Sportscast, and talked about various things, including what a big achievement it is for the Kiwis to find themselves in the final of the World Test Championship.
“We are a very small country. Always seen as the dark horse, the underdog. In the last eight years in particular the team has made two World Cup finals and tied one. That’s the way I see it. And got really close. For a country of our population, our resources, our finances to do that and now find ourselves in the WTC (final) is an incredible effort. Someone like me, who has played for the National team, I take a huge sense of pride in it. And I know everybody here is very excited about the Test match and think that we have a huge chance of winning,” Bond said on TOI Sportscast.
The fact that the Black Caps also played two full Tests vs England ahead of the WTC final, while Team India could only play an intra-squad game could also be a big factor in the final outcome of the game. And Bond talked about that also.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better scenario to play India in England with no practice. Us coming off two Test matches. We are primed to win something. So I am hoping that some of the hard luck stories that we have had in the last couple of World Cups, we will flip the script this time and lift up that mace and be the champions, which will be pretty special, pretty cool for our sport over here, because cricket is the number two sport in the country and for us to achieve that (win WTC Final) will be fantastic,” Bond said on TOI Sportscast.
You can listen to the full Shane Bond episode on TOI Sportscast here
You can also catch the episode under the name TOI Sportscast on Spotify, Amazon music, Google podcasts, Gaana, Saavn and other platforms
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