Ross Taylor seeks clarity from NZ cricket on his T20 future

Wellington [New Zealand], Feb. 14 (ANI): Veteran New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor, who has been time and again excluded from the T20 squad in the recent past, is hoping for more clarity on his future in the national team's T20 set-up. Taylor failed to grab a spot in the T20 side as he was excluded from the squad for the lone T20 match against South Africa to be played on February 17 at Eden Park, Auckland. Taylor, who is the third-highest run scorer for the Black Caps in the shortest format, has not played any T20I since the World T20 11 months ago. He was dropped for the three-match T20 series against Bangladesh in January, which New Zealand won 3-0, and in his absence there was success for Colin Munro (101), Tom Bruce (59) and Corey Anderson (94) which meant the selectors were not inclined to change. Taylor has, however, said he had not been given any specific indication from coach Mike Hesson or selector Gavin Larsen as to what is required of him to reclaim his spot in the national T20 side. "He [Hesson] just said I'm not in the team.all he said was that this was the best team for Bangladesh and said I wasn't selected for South Africa," ESPNcricinfo quoted Taylor as saying. "I asked the question when I got dropped for Bangladesh. You have to respect the decision. You have a review at the end of the season and we'll see what Hess has in store for me and my future in the team I guess," he added. The 32-year-old added that he hopes to play international cricket till 2019 World Cup at least, but with the next World T20 currently scheduled for 2020 he may find the selectors remain keen to cast their net wider in that format. Meanwhile, Hesson, while speaking to reporters on Tuesday, said there had been open communication with Taylor. "That's the nutshell. There's not a role there at the moment because guys there have done so well. It's very difficult for Ross because there aren't going to be many opportunities. We have those issues all the time. We know Ross is a quality player, we know he's keen to play T20 cricket but at the moment we have a side playing pretty well," he said. "Following the Bangladesh selection Gavin Larsen and I talked to him at length. There's certainly been some communication. We communicate every day. Like every player they want to know how to get back in. That's quite natural," the New Zealand head coach said. (ANI)