Jasprit Bumrah. Hardik Pandya. Jason Behrendorff. Mitchell McClenaghan. Krunal Pandya. Tim Southee. Vinay Kumar. Trent Boult. Mayank Markande. Rahul Chahar. Akash Madhwal. Piyush Chawla.

Think 2015-2023. This is by no means an exhaustive list. Some came in absolutely raw, some there or thereabouts, some at the top of their international game, some desperate to resurrect their bowling, some were already huge names, some in search of their version 2.0.

At Mumbai Indians, they found Bond whose huge wings always had the time and the room to take them under. Bond was already a huge name. For any kid growing up in the 2000s, watching him bowl was the ultimate delight. That run-up, that action, that jump, that swing, that pace, that rattling of the stumps, that breaking of toes, that celebration, he was the bowler you wanted to copy. Your eyes always spotted him on the field. And his eyes were always working batters out.

Bond, the coach, was quite the opposite. Your eyes rarely spotted him, but his eyes, were still working batters out. Over nine years, on a ground and a wicket like the Wankhede that had developed a reputation of being rather unforgiving to bowlers, what followed was year after year of MI’s bowlers constantly outsmarting opposition after opposition. Bowling partnerships became a real thing. Matchups became the buzz word. Bowling defensively became an art. Choking out teams became the norm.

Every bowler grew richer in skills and cricketing smarts. Their stock kept going up, season after season. In the nine years from 2015-2023, none of MI’s bowlers won the Purple Cap, so much so that in a majority of these years, none of them even came close to being in the top-five contenders. But as a cumulative group, for most of those years, our bowlers consistently had the best economies and had picked the most number of wickets.

Hard at training with every bowler, plotting strategies, giving countless throwdowns, powering the MI engine from the back seat. Nine seasons, four titles, a line of prodigies, a zillion memories. The name is Bond, Shane Bond.

They say all good things must come to an end. This was a great run. And sadly, the finish line for this lap has arrived. Until we reunite to start the next, thank you Bondy. It is your shoulders on whom we’re sitting comfortably to look this tall.