Marmers49 said:
New Zealand's deadliest weapon since RJ Hadlee. Returning May tour of England. Ripped through Aus with 6/23 in World Cup. One-day average of 19, with 51 wickets in 27 matches (19 in 6 against Aus) and test average of 24 in 10 tests (43 wickets). Ranked third fastest in the word, fastest of 155kph. When he returns, hopefully he will continue to be quick and hurry up those Pommies! How good (and quick) does the world rate him? Not as fast as Akhtar or Lee but more dangerous?
If you ask me Bond is overrated.
People seem to take it for granted that he is one of the top Test bowlers in The World.
Let's go through his Test career:
2 Tests against Australia, averaged 96.33 (wow, that's fantastic, ain't it?)
2 against Bangladesh, averaged 13.63 (wow, that's hard, Bangladesh have so many good batsmen, and the series was at home on very, very seam-friendly wickets)
2 against West Indies, averaged 18 (while West Indies have a respectible batting-line-up, they were hardly as good then as they are now)
2 against India, averaged 16.33 (agan, at home on incredibly seam-friendly wickets - Tuffey and Oram did equally sillily well)
2 against Sri Lanka, averaged 38.8 (and that's fantastic, ain't it?)
If you ask me circumstances have conspired in his favour in Test cricket and in the likely event that we prepare some customary no-seam wickets over here next summer and bat well, I can see another poor series. For me the only occasions he's come up against circumstances remotely challenging, he's failed.
In ODIs, naturally, it's a totally different question, and there's no disputing that he's a very, very accurate and extremely good one-day bowler. He also actually seems to swing the while ball.
Yes, he's better than Brett Lee in Tests but that's not exactly difficult, is it? Lee has to be up with the worst Test bowlers of the last 3 years, and that's saying something.