Shane Bond confident England bowling attack can rattle Australia in Ashes

Stuart Broad (L) and James Anderson will lead the England bowling attack. (File Photo)

England recently roped in former New Zealand pacer Shane Bond as their bowling coach for the upcoming Ashes series against Australia and he believes that England have enough armour to dominate the batting line-up of their arch-rivals. England will like to retain the Ashes title that they won at home. Bond said he is ready for the Ashes series and is looking forward to the challenging job.

“It was completely out of the blue,” Bond was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz. “I’ve been an Ashes fan for a long time … I’m very aware of the rivalry but to be a Kiwi and then get the invite to be part of the series, I was always going to jump at it. So I’m really looking forward to being part of the set-up.”

Bond has also signed a contract with Big Bash side Bribane Heat and will have to shuffle between the two roles. Australia is also the country where Bond made his debut in 2001-02. Bond said that being in Australia helps understand the conditions.

“There’s a whole range of factors: being over here for the last couple of years, I’ve played a bit here, (I’ve got) experience with the Kookaburra ball,” he said. “Also I’ve got a couple of pretty handy campaigners in the England team who I’m getting the opportunity to work with. So I’ve been in touch with those guys and I’m really looking forward to getting over to Perth (this) weekend and getting stuck into what is a nice lead-in time to the first Test match,” Bond added.

England will play the first Test against Australia of the five-match series from November 23 but will arrive in the country in three days time. They will play warm-up games against Western Australia and Cricket Australia XI. Bond was cent percent sure that England win against their opponents especially because of the quality bowling attack they have.

“One hundred per cent, I mean you’ve got a couple of blokes with 900 Test wickets between them, and then some blokes with pace and bounce built in around that,” Bond noted. “So there’s no doubt the team has the talent to win the series. I think it’s going to be a close series, two pretty even teams and from my point of view, I’m just hoping it will come out on the English side – I never thought I’d say that,” he added.

James Anderson and Stuart Broad will the England bowling attack in the Ashes. While their careers records speak volumes, their numbers in Australia aren’t the best. But Bond said that the two bolwers will live up to the expectations.

While Anderson and Broad do boast of stellar records, a matter of concern for the visitors is the relative lack of success for the duo in Australian conditions. Broad averages 32.13 in Australia as compared to his career average of 28.81 while Anderson fares even worse – averaging 38.44 to his overall average of 27.39. Bond, though, remained unfazed and expects the two senior strike bowlers to create problems for the hosts’ batting.

“Coming to Australia, you know the seams are going to be flatter, the wickets are flat, the ball doesn’t do much,” he explained. “So you’ve got to find a way to get the ball to move off the straight. Australia are bloody strong in their own conditions, especially their batting line-up, so that’s the stuff we’ve got three-and-a-half weeks to work through before we turn up in Brisbane.

“And if we get that right, with the quality bowlers we’ve got, we’ll give them a pretty good run for their money. We’ll be well prepared, well organised and we’ll know exactly how we want to attack the Australians come that first Test match,” Bond said.