India and Pakistan favorites for World T20 – Shane Bond
Apr 15, 2016 at 2:11 PM
Former New Zealand pace sensation Shane Bond, in a recent interview with Cricbuzz, opened up about his side’s chances in the T20 World Cup. Bond admitted that it would be tough for New Zealand to win the event, but they had the potential to emerge victorious. He also termed India and Pakistan as the favorites for the tournament. Below, are the excerpts from the interview.
What do you make of New Zealand’s chances at the WT20?
I think it’s going to be tough. There’s no doubt we have a good team. You saw what happened in Australia with India. We’re going to need a little bit of luck and play off our heads to win that tournament. Clearly, India and Pakistan will be favourites in those kind of conditions, but in the T20 format, you never know. If a Martin Guptill or Kane Williamson play out of their skins and Adam Milne has a great tournament, then maybe… I think cricket in the world at the moment is as wide open as it has ever been. Everyone’s dominating in their own conditions and it’s pretty tough. That’s what makes it exciting. The World Cup at home, nobody really knew who would win it. It’s the same for this one.
Your thoughts on the current crop of fast bowling stocks for New Zealand
It’s probably the best group of bowlers arguably New Zealand has ever had in terms of depth. Tim Southee and Trent Boult are world-class. Matt Henry is going to be. Adam Milne bowls rockets. Young Mitchell McClenaghan is a wild thing. (Doug) Bracewell has played a lot of cricket for a guy who’s 24. There’s a big bunch of bowlers there and I’m looking forward to the next World Cup where the guys will be 27-28 and the one after will see them 32-33. The next two World Cups will be exciting for New Zealand because they’ll not just have talented bowlers, but experienced ones as well. This is the golden age of New Zealand cricket if we can keep them all fit.
What about the batting?
We’re going to lose Brendon which is a massive loss in terms of batting and leadership, but there’s enough there to balance that out with Williamson, Ross Taylor, Tom Latham, Guptill. Those guys will carry the torch. The prospects for the next 5-6 years are huge for us.