Wellington: Veteran New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor made history Friday when he took the field against India in the opening Test here as he became the first player to play 100 matches in all three formats of the game. The ongoing match at the Basin Reserve here is his 100th Test.
Taylor was presented his 100th Test cap by former New Zealand wicketkeeper Ian Smith before the match.
“Really excited about the occasion. It’s very nice for the team and the family to experience something they might never do again,” Taylor said. “I’ll need some help drinking (the hundred bottles of wine), but they can be stored for a while. It keeps the tradition from (Stephen) Fleming, Brendon (McCullum) and Dan (Daniel Vettori) who all played over a hundred Tests each and hopefully we can celebrate this one with a win,” added the Kiwi batsman.
The 35-year-old played his 100th T20 International against India last month. He has also played 231 ODIs for New Zealand.
The right-handed batsman is already his country’s leading run-scorer in Test and ODI with 7,174 and 8,570 runs respectively to his name.
In T20 Internationals, he has scored 1,909 runs and former captain Brendon McCullum (2,140 from 71 matches) and opener Martin Guptill (2536 from 88 matches) are the only two Kiwi players above him on the list.
Taylor made his Test debut in 2007 and played his first ODI match a year earlier.
PTI
