Ross Taylor, one of, if not the greatest-ever New Zealand batsman, spoke in detail to the media ahead of the 100th Test match of his career. While the explosive middle-order man expressed contentment with what he has achieved in his time with the national team, he apparently also feared never playing Test cricket again.
Taylor has scored a gigantic 17,653 runs in his glimmering international career thus far, ripening with age and breaking record after record. The 35-year-old is still a match-winner like none other on his day and is set to become the first-ever player in the history of the game to earn 100 Test, ODI and T20I caps each.
The likes of Stephen Fleming, Daniel Vettori and most recently, Brendon McCullum, are mentioned with substantial weightage whenever the torch-bearer talk of New Zealand is held. But perhaps, we tend to forget the quintessence of Taylor in the NZ middle-order for 15 odd years. A player capable of dragging anything to mid-wicket with his short bottom-hand, or pacing a chase in his own way – Taylor is a unique breed of cricketers to have come through the hall of fame.
Speaking to the media in Wellington ahead of his landmark match, Taylor provided an honest account of his red-ball career, where he averages a touch over 46. Asked whether he saw the large picture of a century of Test matches, he said:
“No. I think after my first Test series against South Africa, I didn’t know if I would play Test cricket again. Probably lucky with the timing of things, Twenty20 cricket came along in 2005, and I made my debut in 2006. So it’s probably a timing issue to be able to get there but it’s nice, hopefully to be the first player to do it, and hopefully with time, there’s going to be a lot more players around the world. I’m sure the guy behind me (Kohli batting in the nets) is going to be there and he could play 200 of all of them.”
Taylor believed he was made for the top-level after his maiden Test hundred, continuing:
“It was probably here (Wellington). So I played that first series against South Africa, got dropped for Bangladesh, two Tests at home, and then I played my first Test at home against England and I got a hundred in that first Test. That’s probably the first time I think I believed that I could play at this level.”
On the essence of representing the Black Caps 100 times in the longest format, the veteran added:
“I think I’ve been happy with what I have achieved to date. Test cricket and cricket in general as a batter, you go through a lot of ups and downs and that’s definitely what I’ve been through, and as a team as well.”
Taylor will be aiming to transfuse his ODI form in the whites as well, as his New Zealand side aim to beat Virat Kohli’s troops in the first Test starting on February 21.
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