Luteru 'Ross' Taylor Retires From International Cricket
Luteru 'Ross' Taylor announced that he'll soon be retiring from international cricket and many things are ending/beginning at the moment so praise God, Jah, Buddha and Allah for how cycles come around. I don't know how many of you have Taylor as your favourite cricketer ever, I'm fairly certain that there is a undercover swell of kiwi sports fans who love Taylor for all the cricketing comfort and entertainment he offered. Luteru Taylor is my favourite cricketer ever and I'm chuffed to be here spinning another yarn about him.
I was just starting high school when Taylor emerged and while kicking back in South Auckland, I definitely didn't expect a kiwi-uso to pop up in the Blackcaps. Aotearoa cricket has been the domain of the pakeha and in Auckland, this correlated to private schools and fancy cricket clubs. My pakeha-ness was skewed with a South Auckland tinge, so seeing Taylor representing Aotearoa hit different just as Taylor hit cricket balls differently to any other joker.
The thing that made Taylor so fun to follow in a 'Taylor's coming in to bat, hold up bro' type of way was how frantic everything looked watching Taylor. Sure, Taylor might charge a spinner on his first ball or play and miss a few times. Shit, Taylor might even get out due to his desire for bat on ball. Even if Taylor's innings went that way it was entertaining and then there were those days where it looked like Martin Crowe was smiling down on Taylor among the cricket gods, ensuring that Taylor's shots pinged through a gap to the boundary.
For a bloke who always looked sketchy in his first few deliveries, Taylor is likely to finish his career with Aotearoa's most Test and ODI runs. Taylor is fourth in T20I runs for Aotearoa as well. This is perfectly aligned with Blackcaps success across all three formats and Taylor is joined by Kane Williamson in pushing Aotearoa cricket in all three formats over the past decade. I have Taylor in the top-three batters from Aotearoa; Crowe, Williamson and Taylor.
Taylor learned about international batting from Crowe, so Taylor is unlikely to ever think he is better than his mentor. Taylor's also played most of his career with Williamson and he will know that Williamson passing Taylor for Test runs is inevitable - a lack of ODI cricket could ensure that Taylor's 8,581 ODI runs stays in first spot (Williamson has 6,173 runs).
Throughout Taylor's greatness, there has been a steady wrinkle of niggle against him. Maybe this was your racist dad at the start of Taylor's career who didn't like the slog-sweeps, this was definitely the captaincy saga in Sri Lanka and then Taylor being shunned from the T20I set up. One does not need to be a genius that similar niggle was around the corner in Test cricket as 2021 has been Taylor's second worst year of his career (24.11avg prior to Bangladesh Tests). His worst year was 2018 (23avg) and Aotearoa's batting department has the most depth it's ever had, so niggle was quickly approaching.
Taylor will not play the Tests vs South Africa. This could have been because Taylor wanted some control as to how his career ended and given how a top-three Aotearoa batter ever has been treated in the past five years, who can blame Taylor for wanting a splash of control?
That's the deep cut conspiracy angle. There is also a common sense angle of Taylor wanting to play ODIs because that's his favourite format and he played one ODI in 2021, four in 2020. The only ODIs this summer are in Australia and hosting Netherlands, with the tour to Australia starting on January 30th then ending on February 8th with a T20I. Aotearoa start the first Test vs South Africa on February 17th and that's not enough time for the ODI/T20I squad to return in time for the Tests with all the dramas around the funky flu.
Fun stat tahi: Taylor has averaged 60+ in ODI cricket for four consecutive years between 2017-20. Two of those years were 90+ and Taylor averaged below 40 in just five of 16 ODI years.
Fun stat rua: Taylor was second behind Wiliamson for 2019 World Cup runs with 350 runs @ 38.88avg, 3 x 50s. Williamson had 578 runs @ 86.57avg and this duo were the only kiwis with 300+ runs.
Aotearoa will likely send an ODI squad to Australia that features no Test players. Taylor wants to play ODIs and if that means we get to see Taylor play the one T20I game in Australia, that'll be cool too. Three ODIs vs Netherlands sounds like a Luteru Taylor farewell tour party; Tests in Tauranga and Christchurch then ODIs in Dunedin and the last two Netherlands games will be in Hamilton. Hopefully the stars align for Taylor to play his last two games for Aotearoa in his current city of residence.
We all know about Aotearoa's cricketing depth - I harp on about it the most. Aotearoa has options and this is clearly evident in leaving Ajaz Patel out for more seamers, swapping Mitchell Santner out for Rachin Ravindra or pondering how to integrate Devon Conway, Will Young and Daryl Mitchell. One thought that has stuck with me since Taylor announced his departure is that we can't assume all these batting dudes will be better than Taylor, just because they have shown flashes in the international arena.
There is a difference between potential and consistent international production (ask the White Ferns). In Taylor the Blackcaps had the classy veteran who had overcome every form-dip in his career, who had scored runs in every cricketing country and a lad who had infinite wisdom to share. The arrival of Conway for example created a narrative to push Taylor out and everyone has been very quick to assume that Conway will pick up where Taylor left off, or that the others in this group can too.
I'm a certified believer in Aotearoa's depth, I'm also a sports nerd and assuming such things can get weird. You don't know what you've got until it's gone and this presents an intriguing juncture where we will learn much more about Aotearoa's depth as we move through this World Test Championship cycle and the white ball World Cups.
"I'm not retiring from cricket, I'm still going to be playing domestic cricket, hopefully for CD and leagues around the world and County cricket and what not..."
That's Taylor telling us that we can still catch him on a cricket field and now we have a whole new lens to view Taylor's mahi. Imagine being one of the Central Districts Stags players who can now look forward to far more cricket alongside Taylor and all the cricket grounds around Aotearoa where fans can pop in to see Taylor. I'm excited about this stanza of Taylor's career away from the Blackcaps where my domestic cricket coverage and Kiwi County Tour stuff will likely feature a fun and free Taylor.
"... so if they (Blackcaps) did need me, of course".
That's the second part of Taylor's answer to whether he would consider a return if Aotearoa required his services again - the question revolved around the next ODI World Cup. Taylor was rather emphatic in his desire to keep playing cricket and nothing would make me happier that truckloads of runs from Taylor, the type of truckloads that make you question whether he should have retired.
Maybe those runs come while the Blackcaps keep dominating, maybe not. Either way, the fun in following Taylor and tracking his cricketing exploits appears far from over.
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Peace and love.