Sundaymail Editor
Brighton Zhawi
Sports Reporter
IS Brendan Taylor Zimbabwe’s greatest One Day International batsman or will he end his career as the Greatest Of All Time (GOAT)?
When it comes to local cricket, terms like legend are usually associated with the Flower brothers, Andy in particular.
But the name Taylor is worth mentioning too.
Cricket is a numbers game and Taylor’s statistics put him in good standing to be the GOAT.
The 35-year-old is set to join the 200 ODI caps club, and that could be trivial when talking of legendary status.
On that caps note, only four Zimbabwe players are in the 200 club.
Grant Flower is the most capped with 221 ODIs, Andy Flower played 213 matches, Elton Chigumbura retired with 210 caps and Hamilton Masakadza completes the list with 209 matches.
However, Taylor is on 199 and is set to join the club as the Zimbabwe and Bangladesh series switches to the whiteball cricket, with the first ODI starting on Friday.
So why could Taylor be the GOAT?
In 199 matches and 198 ODI innings, Taylor has scored 6 530 runs, making him Zimbabwe’s third-highest run scorer in the format.
On top of that list is Andy Flower, who scored 6 786 runs in 208 innings.
Grant Flower’s 6 571 in 214 innings puts him 41 runs ahead of Taylor.
In terms of centuries, Taylor comfortably leads the pack with 11 tons.
The great Andy Flower scored four, Grant had six, Alistair Campbell made seven, while Masakadza achieved five hundreds.
Ironically, Taylor’s first hundred (118 not out) came against Bangladesh in 2009 in Chattogram and his latest was against Pakistan, a 112 in October 2020 in Rawalpindi.
So as Taylor prepares to face familiar opponents starting this Friday, he will take confidence from his solid record against them.
He has played 53 matches against Bangladesh, comfortably his most against any opponent. The veteran player has scored 1 410 runs at 28.77.
His home record reads 91 innings, 3 173 runs, 11 not-outs, an average of 40.16 and a highest score of 138.
This is a man who once put his international career on pause when he played county cricket from 2015 to 2018.
Apart from the personal milestone which Taylor is chasing, the Zimbabwe against Bangladesh ODI series is part of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Cricket Super League, a qualifying pathway to the 2023 World Cup.
Taylor is expected to play a leading role as Zimbabwe seek to return to the global cricket showcase.
And for the first time since 2003, the
great Andy Flower’s record of the most ODI runs for Zimbabwe could be eclipsed by Taylor.
Online Reporter