The Bowling Coach of Mumbai Indians (MI), Shane Bond seems to be pretty impressed with the former MI player Hardik Pandya, who had the best outing in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He was injured for a long time and made a strong comeback as a skipper for a new franchise, and with a very calm style, he took the team to the finals, and won the first-ever title in the most celebrated league of the world.
Hardik was let go by MI ahead of the IPL 2022 auction and he was picked up by Gujarat Titans (GT) in the draft phase. The Baroda player was made the captain of the team and he led them to a resounding victory with 12 wins in 16 matches.
Talking about Hardik Pandya, Shane Bond said, “Hardik is a pretty cool captain. He came in the IPL to Mumbai in my first season so we spent a lot of time together. It was probably a foreign role for him to step up as a leader for a different franchise but he did a great job.”
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He further added, “From my perspective, I miss him. It would have been nice to have in around in our team because he is a quality player. India need him too for the World Cup because he showed what a quality player he is and also what a good leader he is.”
Shane Bond asserted that the young speedster, Umran Malik will develop with time and can only get better from hereon. Umran consistently clocked over 150kmph and even bowled the second fastest delivery of the season (157 kmph).
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Talking about Malik, Shane Bond said, “I would have him (Umran) in my (World Cup) squad. The thing about pace is that when you get wickets it is challenging for new players to score against it. He still needs to work on his control…If you have a guy who delivers 3-4 match-winning performances in a season, he will just get better as he plays. He needs to move the ball to play longer formats because it is difficult to sustain that pace for 50 overs or for the course of the Test.”
