Ross Taylor ‘not sure’ about playing 2021 T20 World Cup in India
The T20 World Cup will be held in India in in October-November 2021. The T20 World Cup, which was to be held in Australia this year, has been postponed to 2022.
Former New Zealand captain and star batsman Ross Taylor is not sure whether he will be around playing when India hosts the T20 World Cup next year. Taylor had earlier this year become the first Blackcaps player to play in 100 T20 internationals.
"Oh! Not sure," Taylor, who is currently in Trinidad for the month-long Caribbean Premier League (CPL), was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo when asked about his participation in the tournament.
"As you get older, things slow down a little bit, but your training and experience and your mind become even more important," added the prolific batsman, who has so far scored over 10,000 runs in limited over cricket for New Zealand.
Taylor also spoke about the difficulty of not playing cricket for so long due to the forced break as a result of the pandemic.
"Yeah, it has been a strange time all around. I haven't gone this long without playing any cricket since I was in high school. So, yeah obviously isolation and all those other things are a little bit strange, but it is what it is," said the senior batsman, who will turn up for Guyana Amazon Warriors in the CPL beginning August 18.
"You know it's going to be strange for everybody at the CPL. Nobody has played international cricket for a while, so everyone is going to be nervous, I'm sure. So, training and early games are very important. "The atmosphere in Twenty20 cricket is a lot of what you play and we get the best crowds in that format. So, to play in front of nobody but knowing that people at home will be watching and cheering us on, it's going to be a bit strange, but at the same time something that we're going to get used to," he added.
Taylor will be the main man for his team in the CPL especially after veteran Pakistani all-rounder Shoaib Malik withdrew from the tournament.
"Shoaib Malik has got a fantastic record, especially in T20 cricket and especially for Guyana as well. I think he has got that anchor role and a role that I'll be looking to do as well," Taylor said.
"Every team is stacked with quality spinners and we expect spin to play a big part and probably reverse-swing throughout the whole tournament. "Traditionally, it does spin a lot here anyway, so the way you play spin is going to be very important. Some of the world's best spinners are here, and it's going to be a good test for us batsmen going forward," he added.