Brendan Taylor (ZIM)
One of the new additions to the Lashings World XI squad for 2008, Brendan has already played 10 tests and 75 ODIs, despite being just 22 years old. This is mostly due to his fast-tracking into the main team aged just 18 due to the mass exodus of so many of Zimbabwe's cricketers in 2003/04. However, he's proved that he has a super-cool head on his shoulders and has been behind many of the victories that Zimbabwe have managed to pull off over the years. His most famous innings to date was undoubtedly in the ICC World Twenty20 in September 2007, where he guided an extraordinarily young team to an even more extraordinary victory against Australia of all teams with an unbeaten 60. However, even before then he showed he had the ability to keep his head while all around were losing theirs, having impressed in the World Cup earlier that year. He also had a spell as the team's wicketkeeper while Tatenda Taibu was in the wilderness and has also turned his hand to some reasonable off-breaks in the past, with a best of 3/54 against Bangladesh. His Cricinfo profile lists his best shot as the full-blooded front-foot cover drive, so we're looking forward to seeing him play that and many other shots during his first season with the Lashings World XI.
Click here to see Brendan's profile on Cricinfo (opens in new window)
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