Nottinghamshire’s new overseas signing Ross Taylor has revealed he is desperate to avoid becoming soon-to-be-teammate Stuart Broad’s 400th Test victim.
The Zealand batsman will line-up against England at Auckland's Eden Park in the early hours of tomorrow (Thursday) for the first Test – a day-night, pink ball fixture – after being passed fit following a quad injury and a sickness bug.
Broad will go into that series on 399 wickets, needing just one more to reach a landmark only a handful of players – including the likes of fellow England stalwart James Anderson – have previously reached.
So while Taylor is relishing the prospect of joining Broad in Notts colours at Trent Bridge this season, he is keen to avoid being dismissed by the paceman for a 10th time in his Test career.
Only Michael Clarke (11) and AB de Villiers (10) have been dismissed more by the Trent Bridge seamer than the Kiwi’s nine times.
“Stuart Broad is one of the greats of English cricket,” said Taylor. “He’s got a very good record – and he has got me out on numerous occasions.
“I’ll be trying hard to make the 400th wicket not me, but it just shows you what a great player he is, not only for Nottinghamshire, but for England too.
“Hopefully he doesn’t have too much success over the next couple of weeks, but after that can look forward to playing with him at Notts and get to know him a better.
“I’ve played against him a few times, but don’t know Stuart that well. I’ll be doing my best to take a couple of catches off him when we are playing together.
“It’s a heck of an achievement and I’m sure he’s got 500 or even 600 up his sleeve if he wants to carry on and play that long.”
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