Brendan Taylor is back in Zimbabwe’s Test lineup after a three-and-a-half-year ban—and he says it feels like he’s debuting all over again.
“I couldn’t get out of bed three years ago,” Taylor said before play began in the second Test against New Zealand in Bulawayo. “Now I’m doing what I love again—and that’s representing Zimbabwe.”
Taylor’s return follows an extended period of personal difficulty, starting with his sudden retirement back in 2020. Only months later, he disclosed he had been been threatened by match-fixers trying to corrupt him using his drugs use as leverage. He did not live up to their expectations. The appropriate course, clearly, would have been to make like a cricket ball and bounce, go into rehab, and settle for a suspension for having breached the ICC’s anti-corruption code.
Sidelined from international cricket, and on the horns of a dilemma. He had done some coaching from home, but he was already mentally questioning whether he’d ever play again. It was at this stage that Zimbabwe Cricket chairman Givemore Makoni contacted me. He asked him again to reconsider, providing him with an escape route—give him a long-term prospect to aim for: selection for the 2027 World Cup, no matter how many years away it was.
Taylor agreed. Now 20 kilograms lighter and in what he describes as the best shape of his life, the 38-year-old is batting at the top of the order, stepping in as Zimbabwe tries to end a six-match losing streak.
He didn’t expect the warm welcome he received. “Being handed my 36th Test cap meant the world to me,” he said. “It was a moment of pure gratitude. It wasn’t the reaction I was expecting at all.”
The most appropriate treatment answer that Taylor found, according to Taylor, was spending time in a rehab in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe. “I was in the abyss. Total and incomprehensible demoralisation. He called it all extremely hard. He recalls having to reckon with guilt and shame, particularly regarding what his behavior would cost his family.
Kelly-Anne and the rest of the world had only just learned he was using drugs. He said he was going back into rehab and she initially ignored it. And Taylor felt as though she “needed to make it right. It was like the dream had ended, and I would just have to accept that.
A few relatives and friends, even officials within the Zimbabwe Cricket, helped him in this regard. The ones that showed me a different kind of life. I’m eternally grateful,” he said.
He also underlined that recovery did not only revolving a second chance in cricket. The reason I’m here is to get my life back on track. None of this would’ve been happening if I hadn’t made that decision.’
Taylor, however, will not be donning the keeping gloves in this Test on the field. He scored his first runs in an ugly fashion — a half-glance off a Jacob Duffy bouncer that flew over the wicketkeeper’s head. It was not ideal but it was better than nothing.
Never in my entire life have I trained harder, he said. “If the performances come, great. From my perspective, however, there is a grander scheme at play here.
Taylor isn’t calling it a comeback story. Not yet. There’s more work to do. But he knows what it means to start again. And this time, he’s not taking anything for granted.
“It’s a debut-like feeling,” he said. “I’m just grateful to play again.”
