Ross Taylor put a timer on his career in international cricket, stating he will retire at the highest level after the end of the coming New Zealand home summer.
On December 30, the Kiwi stalwart announced that he will be quitting Tests after the Bangladesh series and hang his boots from ODIs via subsequent series in Australia and versus the Netherlands.
There were indications as early as the World Test Championship final in June that Taylor could bid adieu to international cricket. But the veteran right-hander made the trip to India in November where he struggled in the two-match Test series played in Kanpur and Mumbai.
It is then, fans and experts began speculating, that the forthcoming home season could well be his last. That has indeed turned out to be true, with Taylor himself confirming the news.
While the two-match Bangladesh Test series, part of the new WTC cycle, kicks-off on the New Year’s Day, the ODI series in Australia and the one at home against the Netherlands will be played at the start of February and the back end of March, respectively.
Taylor is calling it a day aged 37 after a highly successful career at the highest level. He is New Zealand’s leading run-getter in both Tests and ODIs. He has made 7,584 runs from 110 Test matches at 44.87 and 8,581 runs in 233 ODIs at 48.20 and strike-rate of 83.41.
Taylor was dropped from New Zealand’s T20I set-up but before that, he featured in 102 games in the shortest format, making 1,909 runs at a strike-rate of 122.37.
In a fine career, Taylor played his role in New Zealand’s successive runs to the final of the 2015 and 2019 World Cups and was also part of the Kane Williamson-led WTC winning team earlier in the summer.
