Ross Taylor comes out of retirement to play for Samoa at T20 World Cup regional qualifiers
“Huge honour to represent my heritage, culture, villages, and family,” he says after being named in Samoa’s squad for the Asia-East Asia-Pacific T20 World Cup 2026 qualifier
ESPNcricinfo staff05-Sep-2025
Ross Taylor scored 1909 runs in 94 T20I innings for New Zealand•Getty Images
Ross Taylor, the 41-year-old former New Zealand captain, will represent Samoa in the upcoming Asia-East Asia-Pacific T20 World Cup 2026 qualifier in Oman, which could help them qualify for the 2026 T20 World Cup. Taylor was named in the 15-man squad, to be led by Caleb Jasmat, on Friday.”Excited. It’s been a few months in the pipeline, but obviously the team just got announced today, so… exciting to represent the country of my mother’s birth,” Taylor told New Zealand Cricket in a chat. “I always wanted to give back to the Polynesian community in some sort of way. I always thought it would be more in a coaching and other avenues, I never thought I would play [for Samoa]. But as the opportunity arose, looking forward to getting out there and hopefully representing and doing my best for Samoa.”It’s the first time that Samoa are being to a qualifying tournament like this, in Oman. Nice for some other players, who have Samoan heritage and are being able to play for Samoa in this tournament and hopefully go as far as we can.”He is still New Zealand’s fifth-most prolific run-scorer in T20Is despite last playing a game in the format in November 2020.
Taylor hasn’t played competitively since December 2023, when he turned out in the Legends League Cricket tournament in India.”I’ve obviously not played a lot of cricket like we used to. So a bit of a shock to the system. But [I] played in some tournaments, so it’s not as if I have gone three or four years without having played,” he said. “But yeah, need to get up to speed as quickly as I can and it’s always good to train for a month or so, a couple of months to just see how the body reacts and hopefully… it’s not what it used to be at 41, but hopefully it’s good enough.”Good enough to take on New Zealand if their paths cross at the World Cup (if, of course, Samoa get there)? “That’d be strange but cool. That’s the ultimate goal, get to the next stage, the World Cup. “Taylor wasn’t the only major inclusion in the Samoa squad for the qualifiers: 32-year-old Sean Solia, another player who has years of experience playing in New Zealand – for Auckland, not internationally – was named in the squad too. Taylor and Solia are expected to add muscle to a batting line-up that has among its stars Darius Visser, who entered the record books by smashing six sixes in a 39-run over (inclusive of three wides) against Vanuatu’s Nalin Nipiko in August 2024.At the qualifiers – which they reached by trumping Vanuatu, Cook Islands and Fiji – Samoa join Papua New Guinea and Japan as East Asia-Pacific representatives, with Oman, Nepal, Kuwait, Malaysia, Qatar and UAE as the other competitors.Samoa T20I squadCaleb Jasmat (capt), Ross Taylor, Darius Visser, Sean Solia, Daniel Burgess, Douglas Finau, Sam French, Kurtis Hynam-Nyberg, Ben Mailata, Noah Mead, Solomon Nash, Samson Sola, Fereti Sululoto, Saumani Tiai, Ili Tugaga