Feels strange, this one. Like many on here, Ross Taylor was the first great hope I grew up with, him being just 5-8 years older than us.
I think we need a trundle down memory lane to remind ourselves just how different the NZ side is now.
He began his career in or around the domestic players strike. Seems crazy now, but NZC used to expect professional athletes and give nothing except to a select few.
He made his test debut during the last few games of the Fleming era, and NZ got steam rolled. The team sheet looks better than it was. I'm pretty sure Scott Styris decided he cbf right after that series, and Jacob Oram's eyesight went into freefall like a year later.
He made his first test ton in his 3rd match, against England at Seddon Park coming in at 3/129. This is what would be called a solid platform for the first 4-5 years of his career. NZ won that game, the final test win of the Fleming era.
In his 6th test he took over the role of senior batsman and moved to #4 at Lords. I'm not even sure he was 25 yet. In his 7th test he scored the 154* coming in at 2/86. His illustrious top 6 was How, Redmond, Marshall J, Ross Taylor, McCullum (wk), Flynn. NZ set England 294 to win and lost by 6 wickets.
His next test ton would come against India, in at 2/22 which became 3/23. NZ scored 600 and didn't win. He came in again at 2/54 in the next test to help NZ to a draw with another ton.
2/30 against Australia. run a ball ton. 2/63 against India in India. Counter attacking ton. He did get a superb platform of 2/131 against...Zimbabwe, where he tonned up and was punished for minnow bashing by retiring hurt.
In Hobart, it's the third innings. NZ need to set a total on a challenging pitch. Ross Taylor comes in at 2/36 and plays his most important innings in Australia, guiding NZ to something defendable, top scoring with 56. NZ win the test.
Then came captaincygate, where he was informed pre-match he was fired. He came in at 2/14 with his successor in the sheds for four. Ton, and in partnership with a coming of age KW sets up the first innings. He then steadies the ship in the second innings amidst a collapse before Tim Southee runs him out for 75. NZ win the game.
I think his career after that is more well known, with 3 tons in a row and the 290 and some underrated gems like the third innings ton against then world #1 Pakistan to set the game up, but while the stats probably say he was at his best from about 2012 to 2016 or 17, he was his most valuable between 2008-2012.
Without Ross Taylor, you don't get the current era. With Ryder more interested in beers and McCullum being an unsuccessful meme, Taylor was the only test standard batsman in the top 6. NZ were very fortunate he was not just test standard but very, very good, or they might well be associates right now.
If he was a 23 year old in the current side he would end with a far better average than 44, but when you're the senior and only test batsman in your 6th test, 44 is like rescue for a drowning man. Just think how much we sook now that Henry Nicholls 'only' averages 40, isn't a remarkable talent and is a bit of a HTB?
Put the vast majority of the current lot in Taylor's position in 2008 and they'd be lucky to average 30 in the context of that side. There was absolutely nowhere for Taylor to hide, because every game he was coming in at 2 for **** all.
He is the most important New Zealand player in my time watching because he is the player who kept NZ allowed to play.
In 20 years some ****in' stats goon will be trying to tell me he was a no good HTB who sucked in the random big 3 cashed up loser country of your choice and Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls, Will Young or whoever was better and they'll have no idea how close they came to never seeing those players don the whites in a side that could give them the chance to fulfill their talents. People will say some random 40-48 averaging overseas player was better when that player would have been crushed, if they had Ross Taylor's job.
Heck, I'd argue Taylor's presence in the side kept a wavering KW from staying the 28-32 averaging batsman he was for his first 3 years, though Kane also gets mega credit for doing the #3 job in a hack line up as barely an adult himself.
This is why Ross is The Boss. He began as an unpaid amatuer, he rose as a rookie thrown into a seasoned veterans position, and ends a world champion.