Nottinghamshire pens a deal with Ross Taylor for the first half of the county season

New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor has signed up a deal with English county side Nottinghamshire for the first half of England‘s domestic season. They have added the Kiwi experienced campaigner as an overseas recruit for the upcoming summer. His official contact states that his term with the domestic team is until the end of June. thus Taylor is available to feature in eight County games and then all the eight matches of the Royal London Cup 50-overs competition as well.

Looking forward to my stint

The Blackcaps batsman has earlier played for a couple of county teams which includes his stint with Durham in 2010 and with Sussex in 2016 and 2017. Nottinghamshire finished at the second spot in Division Two last season. Taylor is also quite excited for his upcoming stint in English county cricket and wants to play an important role in the team’s success.

“I’m really excited about joining Nottinghamshire as they return to Division One of the Specsavers County Championship, and I hope I can play an important part in helping them become re-established at the higher level. It’s also great to be joining a team who are defending a white ball trophy, with the club having won the Royal London One-Day Cup last summer, and hopefully the team can mount a strong challenge again,” said Taylor on his recent signing as quoted by cricbuzz.

The injury prone Kiwi

Taylor will also be available to play the knock-out games and the crucial finale encounter, if his side qualifies for these important games. Nottinghamshire director of cricket, Mike Newell revealed that the team management has gone through a complete process which included his fitness report, which actually delayed the signing a bit. Taylor has suffered a number of injuries in his career so far, which includes his recent injury break against England in the ODI series during which he was forced to miss the third ODI match.

“With Ross suffering a recurrence of a previous quad injury in his century for New Zealand against England on Wednesday, we have been monitoring his fitness, which delayed the announcement of the signing by us. We will continue to check in with Ross and the New Zealand team‘s medical staff, but he’s confident that he will be fully fit come the start of our season,” revealed Newell.

He also mentioned that the 34-year-old is a world-class cricketer. Nottinghamshire will be up in this domestic season without their key players Brendon Taylor and Michael Lumb as both of them aren’t available. This makes Taylor’s presence very important especially in the limited-overs competition.

“Ross is a world-class performer who brings with him an excellent record at the highest level in both red and white ball cricket, as well as plenty of experience. He is just what we were looking for to strengthen the top order of our four-day batting line-up, where we have lost the likes of Michael Lumb and Brendan Taylor from last year, and his aggressive style suits the type of 50-over cricket we look to play,” the Nottinghamshire director further added.

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