Nottinghamshire captain Steven Mullaney is delighted Ross Taylor will be playing for the Club in the first part of the 2018 season – and believes the New Zealander can add an ‘extra dimension’ to the team.

Batsman Taylor will arrive at Trent Bridge for the start of the new county season with a wealth of experience at his fingertips, both domestically and internationally.

And Mullaney, currently out in Potchefstroom on the Club’s pre-season tour of South Africa, feels the skills of the 33-year-old Kiwi complement a Notts squad determined to get off to a flying start as they return to Specsavers County Championship Division One following promotion last summer.

“Ross brings with him a lot of experience and his numbers really speak for themselves, so we know what we are getting cricket-wise.”

“He’s a world-class batsman who averages 48 in Test cricket, so we’re getting a very accomplished player,” said the all-rounder, who has replaced Chris Read as skipper.

“He’ll be coming off the back of a good ODI series against England, where he has already scored centuries, and we hope he goes well in the Test series to follow, but England still win.

“Chris Nash knows him really well from Sussex as does (former Notts player) Andre Adams, who both speak really highly of him.

“He’s 34, but he’s a fit lad and he brings with him a lot of experience and his numbers really speak for themselves, so we know what we are getting cricket-wise.

“Hopefully he comes over and really buys into what we are about and how we go about our business and add that extra dimension to us in terms of flair and experience, particularly in our one-day cricket. We’re really looking forward to having him here.”

Mullaney is delighted in particular that Notts have landed a proven batsman for the first eight games of the four-day season and also the entirety of the Outlaws’ Royal London One-Day Cup defence.

Michael Lumb, Greg Smith and Chris Read all retired during or at the end of last season, Brendan Taylor has returned home to Zimbabwe and Alex Hales will play only white ball cricket this summer.

Mullaney added: “It was important to add to our batting because we had only six batters before signing Ross.

“We’ve had to look to strengthen because we’ve lost four batsmen plus Chris Read.”

“If you look at last year when I went down before the Cambridge game, if we were in that same situation then we would be left with five batsman and asking lads to move up the order, or Academy lads who aren’t necessarily ready at this particular time to come in.

“We’ve had to look to strengthen because we’ve lost four batsmen plus Chris Read, so five batsmen, and we’d signed Chris Nash with Billy Root coming onto a full contract.

“If we hadn’t made the good overseas signing we have, then we wouldn’t have been sending the right message to our Members and fans in terms of our ambitions to win Division One.”

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