Living in the bubble is an art. It is not easy as you think with the exposure we have to the outside world. For Taylor, nothing can come inside the bubble. She lives in her own world and knows what she does. This way, things work for her. She is the most selfish player in the unselfish way that helps her team to grow and compete toe-to-toe with other legendary teams.
She has this knack of taking on bowlers. Having said that, she also goes off trying too much. That’s two different Taylors we are talking about and one can tell which one she brought today by the way she walks to the crease. Somedays, she comes in with the former and would rattle the bowlers. It is like turning on the switch. She would go on and on until she decides to turn it off. She is an undeniable leader who not only cheers the team but also would love to lead from the front. When she finds her team in trouble, you will see her picking up the ball to bowl. The courage and self-belief made her the partnership-breaker.
She is aggressive no matter what the situation is, be it with her captaincy, bowling or batting. On her prime day, she can play literally every single shot and puts the ball wherever she wants. Now, the teams do come in with different plans for her, especially, in T20Is. She loves the challenges.
Now, West Indies comprises of many power-hitters and this is an added advantage to Taylor who does love to play anchor roles at times. She is one of the rarest cricketers who can shift the gears whenever she wants.
Her debut in T20Is came in 2008 where she provided a phenomenal show of 49-ball 90. She was just 17 at that time. Two years later, she became the youngest woman to score 1000 ODI runs.
2013 is undoubtedly her best year where she scored 171 in the World Cup and became the first-ever cricketer to top the list of both ODI batters and bowlers ranking.
In 2015, she became the captain of West Indies and in her first assignment, she helped West Indies to win against Pakistan, a series sweep. She made 27, 49, 98* and 87* in the ODI series.
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The first thing that comes to mind while talking about Taylor is the way she led West Indies from the front in the 2016 World Cup T20I.
Australia had the upper hand in the finals, thanks to their previous experiences. Also, two times before this World Cup, it was Australia who ended the West Indies in the previous World Cups.
Taylor wanted revenge. She wanted to defeat Australia to show the world a new story. While she was at it, a video of Australian cricketers talking about how positive they feel and how they had the upper hand. For an outsider, it is just a video that had opinions of the cricketers who were champions. But for the West Indies, it was a misjudgement of their talents. Something in the video added fuel to the fire of revenge. It was literally nothing but Taylor and her team members found it difficult to accept it. Now, that brought the best out of them.
West Indies cruised past every single team they faced except for a heartbreaking last delivery loss to England. Taylor even cried after that loss. However, there is no looking back after that. She emerged as the most valuable player of the World Cup T20I 2016 and became the first West Indian cricketer to lift the T20 World Cup.
Her performances-
40, 40 & 3/13, 35 & 2/18, 47, 25 & 3/26, 59 (final).
In the final, it was Hayley Matthews who outplayed Taylor. The youngster had 66 off 45 with three sixes to her name and rightly won the player of the match award.
The future should have been bright for the West Indies team after winning the World Cup. However, their victory was overshadowed by their counterparts. In remembering Carlos Brathwaite, the fans almost forgot about their win.
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The latest performance I could think of was against India in 2019. In the ODI series which India won 2-1, Taylor was awarded the player of the series, thanks to her 94 & 2/30, 20 and 76. In this series, she literally was the lone warrior for her team. For India though, they had different players standing up for all the three matches.
Post World Cup, Taylor’s career had both ups and downs with injuries also playing a part. Still, she kept coming back and is still one of the best players of the game and is undoubtedly a legend.
With at least seven to eight years more to come, Taylor will surely break a lot of records and will create milestones that the game will always remember.
