Homeworld carrier
In one-day cricket he formed what McCullum would often call 'the best three-four punch in world cricket' alongside Williamson as New Zealand built towards the home World Cup of 2015.
Homeworld carrier series#
While taking time accept the decision, Taylor quickly reasserted his importance to the middle order and produced a prolific run of form in 2013 with 495 runs in five innings in a three-match Test series against West Indies. After deciding not to tour South Africa, he returned for New Zealand's home series against England, admitting that his relationship with Hesson was still a "work in progress". During Taylor's 13-Test captaincy stint New Zealand notched up rare wins in Australia and Sri Lanka, but immediately after the Sri Lanka tour he stepped down in controversial circumstances, as Brendon McCullum was named captain in all formats. However, Taylor's two-year captaincy stint ended in controversy when it emerged that he and Mike Hesson, the coach who took over from John Wright, didn't have a comfortable relationship. A leadership role wasn't too far away and he was named captain for the tri-series in Sri Lanka in 2010 after Vettori and McCullum opted out. Back at home he was dropped against Bangladesh, but returned in style against England with his maiden century, 120, at Hamilton and then followed that with a memorable 154 at Old Trafford. Given New Zealand's lack of Tests it wasn't until the 2007-08 tour of South Africa that Taylor made his debut and he struggled against the extra bounce.
He scores heavily from the pull and from slog-sweeping the spinners (and sometimes the quicks). In only his third ODI, Taylor hammered a superb 128 against Sri Lanka at Napier in 2006 and he followed it up with 84 at better than a run a ball in his first ODI outside New Zealand, at Hobart against Australia in January 2007. In the mid-2000s, he was just what New Zealand need in the wake of the mass of departures from their batting line-up: an aggressive top-order batsman capable of taking up the challenge to world-class attacks. Ross Taylor has been a fulcrum of New Zealand's batting across formats for more than 10 years, a period that has brought consistent Test success, especially on home soil, and the appearance in consecutive World Cup finals.