Think back to just about any Black Caps triumph of the past decade and chances are Shane Bond was at the centre of it.
The Australia Day thumping of the Aussies in early 2002. The historic Test series win in the West Indies later that year. The ten-wicket thumping of the high-flying Aussies at the Cake Tin in 2007.
Bond is a match-winner, pure and simple. Not since Hadlee has New Zealand had a bowler that could change a game in the blink of an eye; be it with a booming yorker or an irresistible out-swinger.
And while Daniel Vettori-led Black Caps may be performing an admirable impression of a one-man band at the moment, it's the devastating Canterbury speedster who is their good luck charm.
It's the Test arena - exactly where the Black Caps desperately need to improve the most - where Bond's influence is most palpable. Of the 17 Tests he has played, they've won nine, drawn six and lost just two: a record that would be the envy of any nation.
Remove Bond from the equation and the record turns sour. In the 47 Tests since Bond's debut that he has missed through injury or ineligibility, they have won just 10 Tests and drawn 14. Almost half have been lost.
Statistics only tell half a story. The value of Bond's presence in the team manifests itself in the spring in his teammates' steps, the added verve to their bowling, the extra audacity in their batting. Perhaps even more so than Vettori, he is the "follow-me" type leader that his young team needs.
But the flip side of the coin is that on days when Bond is not at his best, or when the opposition is able to quell him, New Zealand's attack suddenly takes on a blunted look.
It's a fact that won't have escaped the touring Pakistan team who arrived on Monday. Although Bond has yet to play a Test against Pakistan, he does have 10 wickets in six ODI appearances against them.
"Bond is a very fine bowler", said Intikhab Alam; himself no feeble judge of talent, having coached and managed Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis in the 1980s and '90s.
"He is a very exciting fast bowler [and] we have great respect for him".
The respect may still be there, but Bond is not the speed merchant he used to be. Once routinely clocked at 150km/h and above, he now sends them down at a relatively-more-serene 140km/h.
He has not so much burst back onto the international limited over scene as eased into it: his 13 wickets thus far have cost him over 35 runs each, almost 15 runs more than his career average
Injury and advancing years have inevitably slowed him down; although in fairness to Bond, his return to full fitness is ongoing and we may perhaps only see the very best of him after Christmas.
The trouble for Vettori and the Black Caps is that they need their hitman to find his range much sooner than that.
Doubtless he would've hoped to see New Zealand cricket unearth a successor to him during his international absence. Tim Southee may yet be that man, although a bout of second-seasonitis showed that he is still some years from becoming a legitimate spearhead to a Test attack.
Nor is the Test bowling unit as a whole in much better shape than he left it. Chris Martin and Iain O'Brien have forged respectable careers but lack the firepower of Bond, while his old partners in crime Kyle Mills and Daryl Tuffey both look set to miss the Pakistan series through injury.
Then there is the public weight of expectation on Bond's shoulders. Just as the sight of Dan Carter coolly slotting penalties eases the nerves of All Blacks fans, nothing warms the cockles of New Zealand cricketing hearts more than Bond tying the world's best batsmen in knots.
Happily, he has has seldom in the past been fazed by having to carry the hopes of a nation. He's no stranger to cricketing comebacks; and all he has said thus far suggests that none of his passion or dedication to fast bowling has faded away.
He knows he has precious little time to lift his teammates from their current Test match funk before the first Test in less than a week's time.
Pakistan may lack the experience and unity of India or the dynamism of Sri Lanka but they have nevertheless brought a very competent side down under. In many ways, it is a shame that they, rather than Bangladesh, are effectively the curtain-raiser to a long summer of cricket.
But with a fit and firing Shane Bond in the side, you can at least bank on the Black Caps to break even this summer. Remove him from the equation and all bets are off.
