After becoming New Zealand’s leading Test run-scorer, Ross Taylor has credited former Kiwi skipper Martin Crowe for getting to the coveted landmark. Taylor achieved the feat on the fourth day of the third and final Test against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground after completing 7,174 runs from 99 Tests and 174 innings, averaging 46.28, including 19 centuries and 33 fifties.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, Taylor said he had always believed himself to be a white ball batsman but it was Crowe who gave him the confidence to become a Test batsman. “My goal was to play one Test match,” he said.
“I guess it’s an emotional time because my mentor Martin Crowe, that was one of the goals he put down for me was to be New Zealand’s highest Test run-scorer. To be honest, I didn’t believe him, but I’d have loved for him to be here and help celebrate,” Taylor expressed.
As far as his white-ball credentials are concerned, Taylor’s greatness has always been unprecedented.
In February 2019, he went past Stephen Fleming for the most ODI runs by a New Zealand batsman, and he also has the most runs in all international formats for his country – 17,250 international runs which include 39 centuries and 88 half-centuries.
Reminiscent of his old days, he said: “When I first played for New Zealand, I’d had a pretty decent one-day career and only scored three or four first-class hundreds and Twenty20 was just coming through.”
“I always thought I was good enough to play one-day cricket, but Test cricket was something I was never quite sure if I was good enough. That’s why I’d seek Martin’s help to become a better player than the raw, gay abandon player that I was as a youngster,” he added.
Taylor is perhaps towards the end of his long career and will go down as the best batsman in Kiwi history.
