Sarah Taylor interview: ‘It’s scary to think where India will be in five years’ time’

Sarah Taylor has been a trailblazer in ladies’s cricket in some ways.

Throughout her distinguished enjoying profession for England, spanning a 13-year interval (2006 to 2019), she was a wicketkeeper of such supreme ability that Australian legend Adam Gilchrist, in 2018, described her as the perfect on this planet – male or feminine – behind the stumps. Identified notably for her sharpness standing as much as the wicket, she effected 104 stumpings in 226 matches throughout all codecs.

An extended-standing battle with psychological well being pressured Sarah to retire from worldwide cricket on the age of 30, nevertheless it hasn’t deterred her from persevering with to depart her stamp on the willow recreation.

In 2021, she made headlines world wide for breaking the glass ceiling when she was roped in by County facet Sussex as a part of the help workers for the boys’s crew. A 12 months later, she turned a specialist wicketkeeping coach for Manchester Originals within the males’s Hundred. At present, she is a part of the teaching workers helmed by Andrew Flintoff at England Lions, which acts as a feeder to the senior males’s set-up.

In mid-2025, her induction into the Worldwide Cricket Council’s Corridor of Fame alongside M.S. Dhoni, Matthew Hayden, Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla, Daniel Vettori and Sana Mir was one other feather in an already-ornate cap.

Sarah has now made her strategy to the Ladies’s Premier League in addition to fielding coach of the Gujarat Giants. In a wide-ranging interview with The Hindu on a breezy Sunday morning, the 36-year-old opened up about her induction into the ICC Corridor of Fame, her teaching assignments, psychological well being, and her fondness for the craft of wicketkeeping…

That is your first involvement as a coach within the WPL. What took you this lengthy?

I struggled with journey. So, the concept of coming to India, a lot of individuals, a lot of followers, I discovered it fairly overwhelming. So, it by no means occurred, but in addition, I didn’t even suppose I’d get an opportunity to return to a event like this.

After which, I obtained requested, as a result of I used to be doing the Hundred with Manchester Originals. When you get your foot within the door of franchise cricket, individuals go searching in that bubble. And so, I used to be fortunate sufficient that Gujarat checked out me final 12 months and requested, “Would you want to return?” It simply didn’t occur. However I did say, please ask me once more. So, yeah, it has taken just a little little bit of time, however I’m glad I’m right here.

You have been inducted into the ICC Corridor of Fame in 2025. What did that recognition imply to you? What’s your proudest second as an England cricketer?

I cried once I obtained the e-mail. I couldn’t imagine it was for actual. I simply didn’t realise that my profession was in all probability as recognised in that regard anyway. So, to have that recognition was insane. It was completely unbelievable. You suppose that you just’ve finished a great job, after which one thing like that’s clearly just a little bit greater than a pat on the again.

Look, the ODI World Cup win at Lord’s in 2017. That may all the time be… yeah, I can nonetheless hear the sound of the ball hitting the stumps when Anya Shrubsole took the final wicket, and my screaming on the prime of my lungs.

I really look again on my profession now, and realise how wonderful it was once we received so many issues. We had an period of England cricket that was so good, and our XI simply picked itself. But in addition, I learnt a lot from the instances when it was so laborious, and we have been struggling to discover a win. That journey was in all probability what I used to be most happy with.

You will have been concerned as a coach in males’s cricket since 2021. Did you could have apprehensions stepping in? It did appear to polarise opinion if you first obtained concerned…

I used to be working with wicketkeepers at Dulwich Faculty in London after my retirement. Richard Halsall, who was Sussex Academy lead on the time, noticed a necessity to herald a retaining coach at Sussex. He requested me to return and work with the Academy keepers, after which it was, properly why doesn’t she work with the professional keepers if it’s going properly? So then it simply constructed from there.

It simply occurred actually organically, and I used to be fortunate to be surrounded by individuals like Ian Salisbury, James Kirtley and Grant Flower. They have been so supportive that I by no means had any apprehension. I did see the feedback on-line, and I can’t disguise from these, and I used to be a bit in a spot of like, properly, I’ll show you mistaken.

Do you’re feeling you could have proved cynics mistaken?

You continue to get the feedback. Even with the England Lions stuff, I nonetheless get feedback that I shouldn’t be working with the blokes. But it surely’s the opinion inside the cricket world that issues most to me, and if you may get these jobs, and individuals are approaching you for these jobs, then you definately have to be doing one thing proper.

I don’t essentially know if I’ve proved individuals mistaken, however, I’m nonetheless teaching, and I’m nonetheless doing the Lions stuff. I’ve simply obtained a contract with the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB), so I have to be doing one thing.

Do you’re feeling extra ladies can go down your route and turn out to be a coach with males’s groups?

Yeah, completely. You’ve obtained to have a sure manner about you to know the boys’s setting. The way in which they take care of issues, the best way they strategy issues, and it’s important to have that understanding, as any male coach must perceive going right into a feminine arrange. I feel there are some personalities on the market who might completely cross that line. It’s simply whether or not the coach can facilitate what the gamers want, and there are definitely feminine coaches on the market who can facilitate what a man wants. Wicketkeeping lends itself to it just a little bit, simply because the character of catching a ball is strictly the identical.

Throughout your enjoying days, you mentioned that you just didn’t imagine in saying loads behind the stumps, however needed to have a presence. How did you go about managing that?

Should you ask anybody that I performed towards, I didn’t say an excessive amount of. I mentioned loads to my teammates, however I by no means mentioned an excessive amount of to the batters.

But when I catch all the pieces, batters know that as quickly as they edge it, they’re gone. Or in the event that they miss, I’m going to knock off the bails. It was about attempting to get that into their head, in order that was the place the presence got here from. I’ll all the time attempt to move that on.

Totally different ’keepers have totally different strategies. Dhoni, for instance, had a singular manner of gathering the ball to impact fast stumpings and run-outs. Whenever you’re teaching ’keepers, what’s the manner you go about educating method?

I in all probability moulded myself just a little bit on Dhoni in direction of the top of my profession when it comes to the pace from my collect to the stumps. Quite a lot of stumpings now are a foot simply elevating barely, and that’s it. That’s the distinction typically, and the taking of the ball again goes out of the sport as a result of the time shouldn’t be there. I discover that thrilling. I really like teaching pace, and displaying them how fast they are often, so that’s going into the sport.

Taylor revealed that in direction of the top of her profession she moulded herself like Dhoni.
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Groups are continually gravitating in direction of batters who can maintain wickets moderately than specialists with the gloves. What’s your view on that?

As a traditionalist, I all the time need the perfect wicketkeeper to play. However I perceive the necessity for stability in a facet. Should you can have that batter in direction of the top who can bat with the bowlers, and typically the perfect ’keepers aren’t essentially that batter, I get that. However when you’ve obtained your finest ’keeper, they’ll have an effect on the sport in a manner that the batter-keepers received’t.

Who’re the wicketkeepers that you just get pleasure from watching most?

Beth Mooney, simply don’t inform her that I like watching her (laughs). Amy Jones will all the time be one, she’s phenomenal.

Alex Carey is fairly good. I completely love watching Ben Foakes. He simply makes it look really easy that it’s ridiculous. I used to like watching Dhoni when he was enjoying for India. I like Quinton de Kock as properly, simply because he’s so carefree with it. It amazes me how good he’s. I’ll simply maintain watching ’keepers, I’m a little bit of a badger. That’s the very first thing I discover throughout a cricket match.

You’ve been candid about your psychological well being struggles, which led to your worldwide retirement in 2019. Seven years on, are cricketers extra outfitted to take care of these points?

Yeah, positively higher. Earlier, much less individuals spoke about it, so that you didn’t know what you had. You didn’t know that what you have been coping with was a factor. I solely learnt as soon as I spoke out that different individuals have been going by the identical stuff. It’s ADHD (consideration deficit hyperactivity dysfunction) that I’ve. I’ve relaxed about it now, whereas earlier I used to be so harassed that I used to be feeling this manner.

The ladies now have entry to a lot. It wanted me to cease enjoying cricket and go into hypnotherapy, and that was the perfect factor for me.

Whenever you have been enjoying, Australia and England have been the 2 dominant sides. New Zealand received the 2024 T20 World Cup, and India received the 2025 ODI World Cup. Is ladies’s cricket extra aggressive than ever earlier than?

Completely. It’s thrilling. The franchise leagues have then opened that up. It’s scary to suppose the place India will probably be in 5 years’ time due to the publicity they’re getting. I’m so glad now you could have a look at a World Cup and say I don’t know which crew goes to win — South Africa, India, England, Australia or New Zealand. That’s cool.