Mohammed Siraj is awesome, good to see emergence of Afridi, Coetzee and Madushanka: Shane Bond

After nine long years, Shane Bond’s association with Mumbai Indians came to an end, as the five-time champions hired Lasith Malinga as their new bowling coach. Bond, on the other hand, joined the Royals family and will be seen wearing pink in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League and in the SA20, where he is part of Rajasthan’s sister franchise, Paarl Royals. 

Speaking about his coaching career so far, Bond shared that he had a fantastic time with Mumbai in the cash-rich league as he played a part in developing rookies like Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya into world-class bowlers. 

“It felt nice seeing them (Bumrah and Pandya) develop into international players and then world-class players; it has been fun to be a small part of that as well. My nine years at Mumbai was a fantastic time,” Bond was quoted as saying by Sportstar.

He also added that Mohammed Siraj is bowling really well at the moment and is happy to see players like Shaheen Shah Afridi, Gerald Coetzee and Dilshan Madushanka develop in recent times.

“Siraj is awesome at the moment. You are seeing guys like Shaheen Afridi emerge, but you forget how young he is. 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,” the 48-year-old added.

Eden Gardens was a spectacular ground to play at: Bond

Bond’s association with the IPL goes back to 2010 when Kolkata Knight Riders signed him for INR 4.8 crore. Revealing his experience of playing in front of Eden Gardens, the former cricketer stated that the crowd used to be super noisy and he loved sharing the dressing room with some of the legends of the game.

“Eden Gardens was a spectacular ground to play at, super noisy, and I made a lot of friends. 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,” Bond shared.