So how do we rank Taylor ??

[FlowerPower]

For me he's up there with the Flowers, and Campbell and is almost sure to surpass them.

Just to back up my thoughts with substance;

I base my rating on ODI's because any talk of his Test pedigree is way too premature, he's only played 12 matches and an ordinary average which I am sure will only improve. So based on Test he is not there yet.

Based on ODI, he is a Zimbabwean legend already, and at 25, headed very far,

Third highest average of all players with more than 20 innings, 34.29, behind Neil Johnson 35.34, and Andy Flower's 36.5 Fletcher only had 6 innings for his 47.75, and Shingi Masakadza's 37.5 is from 4 innings.

Fourth highest all time number of runs (just behind AC, and some distance behind the Flowers, but has over 5 years to overhaul...interestingly Taibu isnt too far behind...)

Fourth highest altime HS (only Coventry's 194 v Bang, Masakadza's 178 v Kenya, and Wishart's 172 v Namibia are higher than Taylor's 145* v SA)

6 Centuries (Only AC has more (ONE more), which I suspect will be surpassed sometime soon)

Scored a half century against every Test team except Eng (including centuries vs SA (145*), NZ(128*/108*), SL(119*), Ban(118/106), and Pak(84),Ind(81),Aus(65), WI (50) ) Didn't do a check, but I suspect this on its own is another record.

Only Zimbo to score back to back centuries.

As for my friend hhm's discounting the sides he has faced. Unfortunately he will never face Bradman, Donald, or anyone from another era, but needless to say his stats which is the only comparater we have speek for themselves, and he is ONLY 25.

So for me the only other Zimbo's in his company are the Flowers and Campbell, all others are based on potential and/or myths our uncles and grand parents told us or an inappropriate barometer (Test cricket, of which Brandon hasn't played enough to be compared).

If we are to use the Test arena, the benchmarks would have to be Andy, Houghton and Goodwin and of the current lot approaching that level would be Taibu, not only for having played near enough games but having performed reasonably, but even then he is just a rung below the top 3, the rest mentioned on this forum (Pycroft, Arnott, Guy Whittal) its a combination of memorable innings, or our parents' memories of special innings or potential, which will never be proved, based on achievement, it would have to be those 3 as benchmarks and the closest of the current lot being Taibu.

[hhm]

As for my friend hhm's discounting the sides he has faced. Unfortunately he will never face Bradman, Donald, or anyone from another era, but needless to say his stats which is the only comparater we have speek for themselves, and he is ONLY 25.

I couldn't agree more.

NB: I think you've been reading too many of Anusha's comments.

[andybligz93]

he is definately in ODI s stats wise top 5 players for zim . he needs to make a lot more runs in the test arena and play a lot more games before even be considered top 15 best test players for zim. if you look at his age and stats its scary to think how much runs and games he could play for zim !! you can also look at him being zims first captain coming back to the test arena , his knock at the t20 world cup against aus, how he left zim cricket then came back , he debuted at the young age of 18 in australia against the worlds best attack , his 145 n.o against steyn ,morkel ect , his back to back tons against nz recently but most of all hes got 5 tons at the age of 26 playing for a minow country !! very scary my friends he is a wonderful player and someone i look up to being a young cricketer , all these make him definately in zims top 5 odi players of all time already. i still have the flowers , johnson , streak and olonga in front of him but not for long .

[FlowerPower]

he is definately in ODI s stats wise top 5 players for zim . he needs to make a lot more runs in the test arena and play a lot more games before even be considered top 15 best test players for zim. if you look at his age and stats its scary to think how much runs and games he could play for zim !! you can also look at him being zims first captain coming back to the test arena , his knock at the t20 world cup against aus, how he left zim cricket then came back , he debuted at the young age of 18 in australia against the worlds best attack , his 145 n.o against steyn ,morkel ect , his back to back tons against nz recently but most of all hes got 5 tons at the age of 26 playing for a minow country !! very scary my friends he is a wonderful player and someone i look up to being a young cricketer , all these make him definately in zims top 5 odi players of all time already. i still have the flowers , johnson , streak and olonga in front of him but not for long .

Olonga? Really? aside the 6 wickets vs India, what else really? Mpofu has taken more wickets at a comparable average and better economy rate, and Mupariwa has a supirior average (to be fair he has a phenomenal average (26.29) from a fair number of innings(35) even better than Streak, and a comparable number of wickets, 55, from only 35 innings compared to Olonga's 58 from 50 ) and these two would not be ranked anywhere near top 5 all time cricketers. Look I think Olonga was a decent player but top 5 and above Taylor? I beg to differ.

PS Can anyone explain the mystery of Mupariwa (and don't tell me about lack of Pace, I can rattle off a dictionary of world class medium pacers)....I mean with 55 wickets from 35 innings, at 26.29 ave, and an economy 4.85....what happened and he is not that old, 26, if I am not mistaken.. Anyone please help....

[hhm]

Can anyone explain the mystery of Mupariwa (and don't tell me about lack of Pace, I can rattle off a dictionary of world class medium pacers)....I mean with 55 wickets from 35 innings, at 26.29 ave, and an economy 4.85....what happened and he is not that old, 26, if I am not mistaken.. Anyone please help....

Together with other so called experienced wicket-tacking medium-pace rubbish in the mould of Rainsford and Panyangara etc, he has been relegated to the trash dump and discarded as irrelevant to a future Zim pace attack led by the inimitable Jarvis-Vitori axis!

[FlowerPower]

Can anyone explain the mystery of Mupariwa (and don't tell me about lack of Pace, I can rattle off a dictionary of world class medium pacers)....I mean with 55 wickets from 35 innings, at 26.29 ave, and an economy 4.85....what happened and he is not that old, 26, if I am not mistaken.. Anyone please help....

Together with other so called experienced wicket-tacking medium-pace rubbish in the mould of Rainsford and Panyangara etc, he has been relegated to the trash dump and discarded as irrelevant to a future Zim pace attack led by the inimitable Jarvis-Vitori axis!

You had to hit me with that one hhm...too hard to resist hey? ...But on a serious note, Raisford and co are there abouts, Mupariwa has just disappeared and I would say he was even better than Raisford and co...

[Jemisi]

Mupariwa does have good stats, but he lost form domestically and kept losing it. He now is struggling to make it at FC level.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

Wow, what an innings today. Unfortunately I missed the part where he passed 100 but I saw his first 70 odd runs; it was just a beautiful display of batting.

At the moment he's averaging 71.60 as captain in Test matches and 63.66 as captain in ODI matches.

[Flower power]

A good variable is that Captaincy is propelling him forward as compared to his predecessors who were affected by captaincy .Utseya & Chiggs .

Taylor is still playing , and he is going to be in the same league as Flower ....

[Jemisi]

It is his consistent quality this season that has really impressed me. Only Flower has been able to do this sort of thing with any regualrity. Aside from 1 or 2 series from Grant and Campbell.