Brandon Moyo, Zimpapers Sports Hub ZIMBABWE’S legendary batter Brendan Taylor, is likely to make a sensational return to international cricket when Zimbabwe hosts New Zealand for a two-match Test series at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo, next week. The 39-year-old batter is serving a three-and-a-half-year suspension for breaching ICC’s anti-corruption code and his suspension comes to an end on Saturday. Zimpapers Sports Hub understands that the veteran batter will likely be considered for the second Test match, which is scheduled for August 7 to 11. Taylor is Zimbabwe’s third all-time leading run scorer with 9,938 runs, only behind the Flower brothers, Andy and Grant. He has 17 centuries to his name, the most by a Zimbabwean batter. In Tests, where he will likely play his first match after his suspension, Taylor is Zimbabwe’s fourth leading run scorer, behind Andy Flower (4,794 runs), Grant Flower (3,457) and Alistair Campbell (2,858). Taylor has 2,320 runs at 36.25 with six centuries, the joint second most in red-ball cricket for the Chevrons, and 12 fifties. In an interview with Fanzone ZW, Taylor said the Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) leadership has been very supportive and believes he still has something to offer in the field of play, although initially he had eyed taking up a coaching role. Taylor also has the 2027 World Cup in mind, which Zimbabwe will be co-hosting with South Africa and Namibia. He is drawing inspiration from Sikandar Raza, Sean Williams and Craig Ervine, who are all still performing at the top of their game. “I met the MD, who has been extremely supportive. Givemore Makoni and Doc Mukuhlani (ZC chairperson) have been incredibly supportive of my journey. I met them two years ago to express some proactive interest in potentially coaching Under-19s or looking at the national batting coaching role. They shut me down, they said, ‘You can coach until you are 60. Do you have anything left in you?’ “I left Zimbabwe Cricket on bad terms. . .You look at Raza, Craig Ervine and Sean Williams; they are still the top performers. They are offering a whole lot to Zimbabwe Cricket. There is the 2027 World Cup and that interested me in potentially coming back. That planted a seed 12 to 18 months ago. “I look forward to coming up, maybe adding some emotional stability to the group,” said Taylor. He added: “What’s gone is gone. I cannot change it. What I can change is now. I can’t look too far ahead. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, and it’s very arrogant of me to even assume that. All I can offer is that I have left no stone unturned in terms of my preparation to return. I have trained extremely hard and intensively. I feel like I am in the best space of my life, because three, four, five, six years ago, I was still performing as a broken human being, intoxicated even to some points. I have been many things in life that I am not proud of, but being a cheat was never one of those. I can sleep okay at night on that. It’s wonderful to live the way I’m living, not in that fractured mind frame all the time.” The first Test between the Chevrons and the Black Caps will take place from July 30 to August 3, which will be the first red-ball meeting between the two nations since 2016. The last match was also played at Queens Sports Club. Zimbabwe go into this series with pressure behind them. The team has played eight Tests so far this year, five at home, all at Queens Sports Club and is yet to taste victory. – @brandon_malvin