Ross Taylor has clocked up many memorable achievements in his 12 years of international cricket, and he’s about to add to that list.
When the Black Caps face Australia this season, they will square off in their three Tests at venues none of the squad have played at.
Optus Stadium in Perth is Australia’s newest international ground, host to just one test so far, against India last summer. But the Melbourne and Sydney Cricket Grounds are among the most iconic and venerable of cricket locations, steeped in Australian sporting folklore.
However, all will be fresh test match territory for the entire Black Caps squad.
Taylor will get to Perth Stadium having played at 38 of the 75 different test venues New Zealand have played at since first setting foot on Lancaster Park in Christchurch to play England in January 1930.
Melbourne and Sydney will lift his list up to 41, health and fitness permitting. It will have been 32 and 34 years respectively since the Black Caps last played at those two grounds.
It is remarkable that given the duration of Taylor’s Test career he’s played at neither the MCG or the SCG, other than limited-overs matches.
Not that the veteran batsman is big on those sort of numbers or statistics.
His first Test was at Johannesburg in late 2007. Taylor’s test career began inauspiciously with 15, 4, 17 and 8 in two tests against an admittedly formidable South African attack, headed by Dale Steyn and Makhaya Ntini.
The first of his 18 centuries arrived in test No 3 at Hamilton against England three months later. Two of them have come against the Aussies, against whom his test average is an impressive 49.82 from nine games.
New Zealand will play their second pink-ball Test in Australia at Perth, having taken part in the inaugural day-night Test at Adelaide in late 2015.
The last time Taylor was in Perth, he compiled his highest Test score, 290 at the old Waca ground on that 2015 visit.
When you add in the Black Caps newest test ground, Bay Oval at Mt Maunganui, which made its debut for the first England test, and those Melbourne and Sydney matches, it makes for a bumper seven-test summer, loaded with special elements.
Taylor has a business as usual approach to what lies ahead. He admitted when he started playing international cricket he did mentally tick off the various grounds he played at, such as Adelaide Oval, the Waca and the Gabba in Brisbane – ‘’but now not so much’’.
As an indication of how long it is since the Black Caps were granted a test at Melbourne or Sydney, Taylor was three when the Black Caps last played Tests at those grounds.
That most recent appearance in Melbourne is part of Black Caps Test folklore, the Test ending with Sir Richard Hadlee and Danny Morrison striving for the final Australian wicket; Mike Whitney and Craig McDermott hanging on by the skin of their teeth.
Taylor knows the history, how Morrison surely had McDermott lbw just before the end, only to be turned down by the Australian umpire Dick French.
‘’I don’t think it was hitting leg or off. But it was smashing into middle,’’ Taylor recalled with grim humour. ‘’We’re lucky we’ve got reviews now.’’
Since that match, New Zealand have played 19 Tests in Australia – seven in Brisbane, five in Perth, four in Hobart and three in Adelaide. ODIs yes, and two T20s at the SCG, but no tests in Australia’s biggest cities.
Taylor echoes the thoughts of the other senior New Zealand players, who can’t wait to get to the MCG in particular, for the Boxing Day Test.
On their previous appearances there, the Black Caps lost by an innings and 25 runs in their first-ever Test on Australian soil in 1973, and drew in 1980 before the thriller seven years later.
There have been just two Tests at the SCG, a draw in 1974, when rain washed out the final day with the Black Caps a big chance to win, and a four-wicket loss in 1985.
‘’I think it’s a special occasion,’’ Taylor said of the Boxing Day spectacular. ‘’Just the amount of people who are talking about it from New Zealand.
‘’You watch whatever game New Zealand is in, but you also turn on the Boxing Day Test, and for 32 years we haven’t played in that game.
‘’That’s pretty significant in the psyche of a New Zealander, that they can now say ‘we’ll be watching that test and New Zealand will be in it’.’’
Among the challenges for the Black Caps in Australia will be coping with the anticipated varying conditions from Test to Test.
Perth is traditionally bouncy and with good pace; the MCG’s history suggests a low, slow pitch which calls for a fresh approach from the bowlers and good batting techniques; while Sydney usually supports the spinners.
Black Caps coach Gary Stead is trying to keep a lid on expectations for the Boxing Day Test.
‘’In reality, it’s another game of cricket and we have to play well, regardless of where we are at.
‘’As long as we don’t overhype it any more than any other test, that’s what’s important to me,’’ he said.
But as he added, ‘’the MCG, given its history and size and closeness to New Zealand, makes it a little more unique for Kiwis to be able to get over there. That’s exciting, and it could be a fanfest over there by the sound of it’’.
