Sarah Taylor recently broke one of the biggest barriers in women’s cricket by becoming the fielding coach of the senior England men’s test team ahead of their test series against New Zealand. The former English cricketer worked with Andrew Flintoff with the England Lions team. She was named as part of the management in a squad that saw a few big changes in terms of personnel. During her 13-year-long cricket career with the women’s Taylor won the 2017 ODI World Cup and was considered to be one of the best wicketkeepers across the two genders. She has previously coached the men’s cricket team in Sussex and Manchester Originals in the Hundred.
Rob Key confirms Sarah Taylor’s appointment
England’s director of cricket, Rob Key, confirmed Sarah Taylor’s appointment ahead of the test at Lord’s against New Zealand. Talking about her appointment, Key said, “I just think she’s one of the best in the business at what she does.” He further said, “She’s been outstanding, and she’s worked a lot with Andrew Flintoff and Ed Barney. They can’t speak highly enough of her. So from what we can see, she’s one of the best in the business.”
Sarah Taylor’s playing career
During her playing days, Sarah Taylor remained one of the top players and certainly was the best when it came to performances behind the stumps. Taylor, who will turn 37 in less than a few days, played her last international match in July 2019.
She represented England’s Women’s team in all three formats across 226 matches. Her career as a test batter did not yield any memorable performances with the bat in hand, having scored 300 runs in 10 matches in the longest format.
It was in WODIs where Taylor’s best came. In 126 games in the format, she scored over 4,000 runs, averaging close to 40 while striking at more than 80. She scored seven centuries and 20 fifties in the format.
In WT20Is, Taylor scored 2,177 runs, averaging just a shy under 30 while striking at a modest rate of 110. She smashed 16 fifties in the format, hitting 241 fours and only six sixes.
Her six-hitting ability always remained a concern in international cricket. In spite of facing close to 7,500 balls in international cricket, she only struck 10 sixes.
Sarah Taylor as a wicketkeeper
It was her work as a wicketkeeper that made Sarah Taylor the best. She holds the record for inflicting the most stumpings in WODIs, having inflicted 51 stumpings. In WT20Is, with 51 stumpings, she has the second most in the shortest format. Overall, she took 128 catches and inflicted 104 stumpings in her international career across formats.
Pragun is a passionate cricket follower and writer who deeply loves the game. Having completed his education with a degree in Journalism and Mass Communication, he has an experience of almost two years in diverse fields. He is known for his statistical and analytical articles. Pragun tries to bring life to his articles by adding a layer of enthusiasm from the perspective of a hardcore fan. Apart from writing cricket articles, he sometimes appears on YouTube videos on a friend’s podcast.
