Brendan Taylor

Brendan Ross Murray Taylor (born 6 February 1986) is a Zimbabwean former international cricketer and a former Zimbabwean captain, who played all formats of the game.

Taylor is a right-handed batsman but is also an off spinner.

Strong domestic performances and a mass Exodus of top-level players forced Taylor into the national team at the age of 18 against Sri Lanka in 2003–04.

He made his ODI and international debut against Sri Lanka on 20 April 2004 at Bulawayo ad opened the batting alongside Vusi Sibanda but had a tough start to his international career after being clean bowled by Chaminda Vaas for duck on his debut.

He made his test debut a month later on 6 May 2021 against Sri Lanka in a losing cause.

Taylor made his debut for Zimbabwe at a time when many of the country's leading players rebelled against Zimbabwe Cricket (formally known as the Zimbabwean Cricket Union) and made themselves unavailable to represent the side.

Consequently, to fill the gap, many young players were prematurely brought into the team, which weakened the side, especially at Test level.

Taylor was one of the youngest and most promising in this lot.

In 2006, despite not having signed a new contract, he was selected in the national team.

Soon, he took over the wicketkeeping responsibilities as well following the temporary departure of Tatenda Taibu.

Taylor's first Twenty20 outing was against Eagles in September 2006 and the second was versus Bangladesh in December 2006.

In the third ODI of the Bangladesh tour of Zimbabwe (2006), Taylor played a crucial role in a Zimbabwe win.

He represented Zimbabwe in four ICC T20 World Cup tournaments in 2007, 2010, 2012 and 2014. Also, he represented Zimbabwe in three ICC ODI world cups as well in 2007, 2011 and 2015.

He shot to international prominence after his 60 not out helped Zimbabwe achieve a five-wicket upset over Australia in the 2007 ICC World Twenty20.

In July–August 2007, Taylor was re-selected for the Zimbabwe Select team against South Africa A, having not been available against India A. He scored just 15 runs (2 and 13) in the second first-class match, having been overlooked for the first game.

With Tatenda Taibu back in the team, Taylor was no longer needed behind the stumps.

In the ODI series against the full South Africa team, the entire Zimbabwe squad performed above themselves (including their highest ODI score against South Africa), but falling short on all 3 occasions.

Taylor too had a good series, ending as the 5th highest run-scorer, with 105 runs at 35.00.

He became the first Zimbabwean batsman to hit back-to-back One-Day International (ODI) centuries (128 not out and 107 not out), achieved against New Zealand in October 2011.

He was selected to play Twenty20 cricket for the Wellington cricket team as an overseas player in New Zealand's HRV Twenty20 Cup in December 2011.

In 2015, former Zimbabwe captain Alistair Campbell described Taylor as "our standout player for the last seven or eight years".

He is known for his unorthodox shots especially his ability to play upper cuts over the third man and ramp shots with elegance and are often considered as his trademark signature shots.

His style of play and ability to make substantial contribution with the bat often drew comparisons with that of Andy Flower.

He captained Zimbabwe in ODIs until 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup, having taken over the reins from Elton Chigumbura after the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

He repeated the feat again at the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup.

His 433 runs at the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup set a new record for Zimbabwe in any World Cup.

His 11 centuries in ODIs is also a Zimbabwe record surpassing Alistair Campbell's 7.

Taylor quit his national side soon after the 2015 World Cup but on 14 September 2017, he terminated his contract with Nottinghamshire to return home to Zimbabwe.

It was announced that Taylor had decided return home and play for Zimbabwe for personal reasons.

In November 2018, Taylor became the first batsman for Zimbabwe to score a century in each innings in a Test on two occasions.

In October 2020, in the first ODI against Pakistan, Taylor scored his 17th century in international cricket to become the batsman with the most centuries for Zimbabwe across all three formats.

Due to all these achievements, Taylor is often regarded as one of the finest batsman of Zimbabwe in the modern era.

In July 2021, during Zimbabwe's home series against Bangladesh, Taylor played in his 200th ODI match.

In September 2021, ahead of Zimbabwe's third ODI match against Ireland, Taylor announced that he would retire from international cricket following the match.

In January 2022, he made a revelation about his forced involvement into spot-fixing due to the circumstances he had to deal with and stated that he will be facing a lengthy international ban for failing to report details related to it on time.

Later the same month, Taylor was banned from all cricket for 3 1⁄2 years by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Taylor was nurtured by Iain Campbell, the father of Zimbabwean Test cricketer Alistair Campbell, at Lilfordia School near Harare.

During his teens, where he attended St. John's College (Harare), Taylor emerged as a regular choice for national age-group teams and played in two Under-19 World Cups.

He made his first-class debut for Mashonaland A at the age of 15.

The very next year, he shot to prominence by scoring 200 not out in the B Division of the Logan Cup.