Brendan Taylor
Brendan Ross Murray Taylor is a Zimbabwean international cricketer and a former Zimbabwean captain, who plays all formats of the game. Taylor is a right-handed batsman but is also an off spinner. 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 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 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 became the first Zimbabwean batsman to hit back-to-back One-Day International centuries, achieved against New Zealand in October 2011. He repeated the feat again at the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup. 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. 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 to 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 in 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 years by the International Cricket Council. In August 2025 he returned to the Zimbabwean Test team.
International career
Early years
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, 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. 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 2004 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 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. 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 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, 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. Taylor's first Twenty20 outing was against Eagles in September 2006 and the second was versus Bangladesh in December 2006.
Defeating Bangladesh, 2006
In the third ODI of the Bangladesh tour of Zimbabwe, Taylor played a crucial role in a Zimbabwe win. A close game throughout, Zimbabwe required five runs from the final ball, effectively meaning a six needed to be hit to win the game. Taylor successfully hit a six off the bowling of Mashrafe Mortaza on the last ball, giving Zimbabwe the victory, and contributing to their series win. Taylor remained undefeated on 79 off just 72 balls and also awarded the man of the match for his match winning efforts with the bat.The ICC World Cup 2007 campaign
After a relatively unsuccessful series at home against Bangladesh in February 2007, in which there were some concerns over his commitment to the team, he was still selected for the 15-man squad to tour to the West Indies for the World Cup. With over 60 ODIs under his belt, he is the team's most experienced player.After a decent World Cup campaign, including 87 runs from 3 matches at an average of 29.00, Taylor went to play club cricket in the Netherlands, despite a ruling by the Zimbabwe Cricket board that any player leaving the country to play club cricket would be overlooked for selection.
Defeating Australia, 2007
Into the action early, Taylor caught Matthew Hayden off then bowling of Chigumbura. Taylor was also involved in a first class stumping, which saw Andrew Symonds depart. Taylor also made a crucial run out, with only one stump to aim at, to dismiss Mitchell Johnson.With Zimbabwe restricting Australia to just 138, by Twenty20 standards a poor score, Taylor also opened their innings. While Vusi Sibanda got the ball rolling with several quick boundaries, Taylor was the key man, and batted out the innings. With both teams reasonably even placed for the first dozen overs, it was when Brad Hodge came on to bowl his gentle offspin in the 15th over that Taylor turned the match in Zimbabwe's favour. 15 was scored from the over, including two massive sixes by Taylor, the longest of which went 77 metres. With 12 runs required from the final over, Taylor played a cheeky sweep which ended being 4 from the first ball. Followed by a single, a two and another single, Zimbabwe needed 4 runs from 2 balls with Taylor facing, Chigumbura at the non-strikers end. With a ball to spare, 4 leg-byes were scored, with the ball running down to fine leg. Taylor ended with 60 not out from 45 deliveries. His fine all round performance with the bat and gloves won him the man of the match award.
In June 2008, Taylor joined the Lashings World XI based in England. This was seen as somewhat controversial due to reports of tension between Taylor and Zimbabwe Cricket Board, as a result of the board's policy of denying players to play abroad.