Brendan Taylor

Among the many cricketers, who got their chance after the rebel Zimbabwean players protested against the board in 2004, Brendan Taylor was probably the most talented to come through. He was drafted into the side as a young 18-year-old batsman and made his ODI debut against the visiting Sri Lankans in April, 2004. He failed in the first four matches, but showed glimpses of his talent with a knock of 74 in the final game. He followed it up with consecutive half-centuries against Australia in the next month and by then, it was clear that Taylor was one for the future.

While the talent was indisputable, questions about his temperament lingered on, as Taylor was guilty of getting starts and throwing it away in an attempt to be aggressive. Now and then, he would show signs of a mature head on his shoulders, but wasn't consistent enough.

Taylor was a part of the Zimbabwe World Cup squad in 2007, but failed to impress. However, in the same year when the ICC launched the T20 World Cup, Taylor helped Zimbabwe stun 50-over Champions Australia in a league match. Taylor, anchored the chase of 139 with a fine knock and ended up with an unbeaten 60 off 45 balls to take Zimbabwe home.

Apart from being a batsman and a useful part-time spinner, Taylor also kept wickets in the absence of Tatenda Taibu. Despite being consistent with the bat, Taylor had to wait until 2009 for his maiden ODI century. He struck an unbeaten 118 against Bangladesh, but it went in vain as Bangladesh clinched a one-wicket victory.

In the next one year, he started converting his starts and went on to score centuries against top teams like Sri Lanka and South Africa, the latter being a majestic unbeaten 145. He played in the 2011 World Cup and scored 80 against Sri Lanka in a league match. He was named the captain of the side after the World Cup. When Zimbabwe returned to the Test fold after a long gap, Taylor scored 176 in the one-off match against Bangladesh, including a second innings hundred, becoming only the second Zimbabwean to score a century in his first match as captain. Soon after, in the ODI series against New Zealand in 2011, Taylor showed fantastic form and became the first Zimbabwean to score back-to-back ODI tons. This form continued in the Tests that followed.

Since Zimbabwe's return to Tests, Taylor has shown maturity in all forms of cricket. He led Zimbabwe by example, contributing to some of their most important wins. Taylor was contracted to play for Wellington as an overseas player in New Zealand's HRV T20 Cup in December 2011. Although Wellington finished at the bottom, Taylor was the side's leading scorer with 207 runs and eleventh best overall.

In 2013, he was signed by the Chittagong Kings for $30,000. Taylor was again one of their best scorers and after Mahmudullah resigned as the captain, Taylor took over the reins. Taylor was the team's leading scorer and 3rd in the league with 316 runs. Taylor gave up the ODI and T20I captaincy in August 2014 to Elton Chigumbura as the board wanted to try the split captaincy theory. After giving up the leadership role, Taylor's batting has been on a downwards spiral. He had a mediocre tri-series against South Africa and Australia and didn't play to his potential in Bangladesh as well.

He broke millions of Zimbabwean hearts with his decision to turn Kolpak at the end of the 2015 World Cup, and that too after he smashed two sparkling back-to-back tons against Ireland and India. His 433 runs in the tournament gave him the record for the most runs by his countrymen in any edition. He was only 29, certainly with the best years of his career ahead of him.

He however cited financial reasons for his move out of Zimbabwe. He turned down the central contract and announced his retirement as well from Zimbabwean cricket with a move headed to Nottinghamshire. His county stint was pretty inconsistent to start off with. Not just poor form. Taylor had to fight poor behaviour on his part as well, quite like the incident when he fell asleep in his car during the post match celebrations of the Royal London semi-finals in 2015.

In September 2017, he announced a move back to his homeland and made himself available to play international cricket for Zimbabwe, giving them a major boost ahead of their preparations for the 2019 World Cup, where they'd have to qualify to make it to the main draft. He was also picked by the Stellenbosch Kings in the newest league coming out, the Global T20 League.