New Zealand National Cricket Team vs Zimbabwe Cricket Team Match Scorecard: Veteran wicketkeeper batter Brendan Taylor returned to Zimbabwe’s Test team in the second Test against New Zealand after a four-year absence due to an ICC ban. Taylor, 38, played his first international match since 2021 and marked a significant milestone in his career. He became the longest-serving active Test cricketer, surpassing England pacer James Anderson in terms of career span. Taylor made his Test debut in 2004 against Sri Lanka in Harare and is currently playing the 35th Test of his career. Only India’s Sachin Tendulkar has had a longer Test career among cricketers who debuted since 1989, having played for over 24 years.
Taylor served a three-and-a-half-year ban imposed by the International Cricket Council for breaching anti-corruption and anti-doping rules. He had accepted money and gifts from a businessman during a trip to India in 2019 and failed to report the approach in time.
He last played a Test match for Zimbabwe in July 2021 against Bangladesh. His return comes as Zimbabwe trail the two-match series against New Zealand 1-0. Taylor is also close to joining an elite group of Zimbabwean cricketers. He needs only 62 more runs to complete 10,000 runs in international cricket. So far, Taylor has scored 9,938 runs across formats — 2,320 in Tests, 6,684 in ODIs, and 934 in T20Is. He has 17 international centuries and 57 fifties to his name. If he reaches the milestone, Taylor will become only the third Zimbabwe player to score 10,000 or more international runs, joining Andy Flower (11,580 runs) and Grant Flower (10,028).
In Test cricket, Taylor ranks fourth among Zimbabwe batters. Andy Flower tops the list with 4,794 runs at an average of 51.54.
Longest Test Career Spans (Top Names)
- Wilfred Rhodes (England): 30 years, 315 days
- Brian Close (England): 26 years, 356 days
- Frank Woolley (England): 25 years, 13 days
- Sachin Tendulkar (India): 24 years, 1 day
- Brendan Taylor (Zimbabwe): 21 years, 93 days
- James Anderson (England): 21 years, 51 days
