We Couldn't Have Asked For A Better Scenario - Shane Bond Feels New Zealand Have A "Huge Chance Of Winning" The WTC Final

Former New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond reckons Kane Williamson’s side is better positioned to win the WTC Final than Virat Kohli’s team.

Shane Bond starts off by talking about the rise of the Black Caps side this decade: first under Brendon McCullum, who led the side to the final of the 2015 World Cup, and then under Kane Williamson, who also captained the team to the 2019 World Cup final, which they lost marginally to England – Shane Bond still feels it was a tie – and now they are in the WTC Final and are one of the two best Test sides in the world.

He takes immense pride that the team has achieved so much success despite a fraction of the riches or resources that, say, teams like India, England, and Australia have at their disposal.

“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. This is how I see it. And got really close.

“For the country of our population, our resources, our finances to do so and now find ourselves in the WTC (Final) is an incredible effort,”Shane Bond said on the Times Of India sports podcast, Sportscast.

“For someone like me, who has played for the national team, I take great pride in that and I know everyone here is very excited about the Test match and thinks we have a huge chance of winning,” he added.

We are ready to win something: Shane Bond

Shane Bond, who took over 250 international wickets with his menacing pace, asserts that the Kiwis are coming off a series win over England, and hence are better acclimatized to the conditions, which are already seam-friendly, than India.

He reckons that this final, the first of its kind in the history of the game, would bring New Zealand an ICC title they have been craving for so long. That as an effect, Shane Bond believes, will boost cricket in New Zealand where its craze or popularity is miles behind Rugby.

“We could not have asked for a better scenario to play against India in England without practice. We are coming out off two Test matches. We are ready 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 turn the script this time and lift up that mace and become 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,” the former speedster stated.

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