Taylor has chance to show off his 20/20 vision

Ross Taylor must lift his strike rate and find the boundary more often if he’s to get greater opportunities in the Black Caps’ Twenty20 side.

Taylor is poised to play his first T20 international since March 2016, in a T20 World Cup semifinal loss to England, against the West Indies at Nelson’s Saxton Oval tomorrow.

It is set to be a one-off cameo with skipper Kane Williamson returning to replace him for the second and third matches in Tauranga.

The 33-year-old has been scoring runs for fun in ODI cricket in 2017, notching 968 at 60.50 from 20 innings, the fifth most in world cricket for the calendar year. In test cricket, his batting has been just as impressive, amassing 408 from seven innings at 81.60.

Taylor has made it clear he’s keen to play all three forms at international level. Black Caps coach Mike Hesson said tomorrow’s match was a perfect chance for him to push his claim for future selection.

‘‘This will be a good opportunity for Ross. The areas we want to see in T20 are that strike rate and throughout the middle order in T20s – it’s a completely different role than

it is in one-day cricket.’’

Taylor has played 73 T20 internationals since 2006, averaging 24 at a strike rate of 120.

He remains on the outer for T20s with New Zealand favouring powerful strokemakers Tom Bruce and Glenn Phillips, who can clear the rope and keep the scoreboard rolling.

Taylor was named in the T20 squad during the tour of India in October-november, after impressing in the one-dayers, but didn’t feature in the three matches.

That came after failing to be given an explanation by Black Caps management for his T20 nonselection earlier in the year.

He was dropped for the threematch T20 series against Bangladesh in early January and was also overlooked for a one-off T20 match against South Africa in Auckland in February.

Taylor attributed part of his stellar batting this year to having the pterygium on his left eye, a benign growth known as surfer’s eye, removed last November.

‘‘[I’m] even taking some catches for a change. There was a couple of years there where I was dropping goobers and was wondering why. I thought I was just getting old,’’ he said.

‘‘You never get too carried away. You’re only a couple of bad scores away from losing the confidence. You want to try and ride it as long as possible.’’