Against New Zealand at Bulawayo, Brendan Taylor returned to the Zimbabwe Test XI after more than four years, setting several new records in the process.
Taylor had debuted back in 2004, against Sri Lanka at Harare, which makes him the earliest debutant among the contemporary Test cricketers. He had last played a Test in 2021, following which he had served a three-and-a-half-year ban by the ICC on corruption charges: when a bookie had approached him, he did report to the ICC – but not early enough.
Taylor finally returned to the Zimbabwe XI for the second Test of the ongoing two-match home series against New Zealand. At 21 years 93 days (on the first day of the Test), this is now the 12th-longest career of all time. Among the 11 cricketers above him on the list – he may go past some of them over time – Brian Close, Sachin Tendulkar, and Syd Gregory are the only ones whose careers were not interrupted by non-cricketing reasons.
It is worth a mention that Wilfred Rhodes, who tops the list, played in five calendar decades – 1890s, 1900s, 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s.
2nd Test, Zimbabwe vs New Zealand
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- Ball by ball Over
Longest men’s Test careers in terms of time elapsed
Player | Original team | New team | From | To | Span | Comments |
Wilfred Rhodes | England | June 1, 1899 | April 12, 1930 | 30 years 315 days | Interrupted by World War I | |
Brian Close | England | July 23, 1949 | July 13, 1976 | 26 years 356 days | ||
Frank Woolley | England | August 9, 1909 | August 22, 1934 | 25 years 13 days | Interrupted by World War I | |
George Headley | West Indies | January 11, 1930 | January 21, 1954 | 24 years 10 days | Interrupted by World War 2 | |
Sachin Tendulkar | India | November 15, 1989 | November 16, 2013 | 24 years 1 days | ||
John Traicos | South Africa | Zimbabwe | February 5, 1970 | March 17, 1993 | 23 years 40 days | Switched nations after apartheid ban |
Jack Hobbs | England | January 1, 1908 | August 22, 1930 | 22 years 233 days | Interrupted by World War I | |
George Gunn | England | December 13, 1907 | April 12, 1930 | 22 years 120 days | Interrupted by World War I | |
Syd Gregory | Australia | July 21, 1890 | August 22, 1912 | 22 years 32 days | ||
Freddie Brown | England | July 29, 1931 | June 30, 1953 | 21 years 336 days | Interrupted by World War 2 | |
Dave Nourse | South Africa | October 11, 1902 | August 19, 1924 | 21 years 313 days | Interrupted by World War I | |
| Brendan Taylor | Zimbabwe | May 6, 2004 | August 7, 2025 | 21 years 93 days | Served a ban | |
James Anderson | England | May 22, 2003 | July 12, 2024 | 21 years 51 days | ||
Shivnarine Chanderpaul | West Indies | March 17, 1994 | May 3, 2015 | 21 years 47 days | ||
Imran Khan | Pakistan | June 3, 1971 | January 7, 1992 | 20 years 218 days | ||
Bobby Simpson | Australia | December 23, 1957 | May 3, 1978 | 20 years 131 days | Recalled from retirement | |
Colin Cowdrey | England | November 26, 1954 | February 13, 1975 | 20 years 79 days | Recalled from retirement | |
Mushfiqur Rahim | Bangladesh | May 26, 2005 | June 28, 2025 | 20 years 33 days | ||
Garry Sobers | West Indies | March 30, 1954 | April 5, 1974 | 20 years 6 days | ||
Mushtaq Mohammad | Pakistan | March 26, 1959 | March 29, 1979 | 20 years 3 days | ||
- Active cricketers are in italics
- At 20 years 335 days, Vera Burt is the only woman with a Test career longer than two decades. She debuted on March 20, 1948 and played another Test that month, but her third (and last) Test got over on February 18, 1969.
