Former Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor, who is currently serving a three-and-a-half-year ban for breaching the ICC's anti-corruption code, is aiming for an international comeback once his suspension ends in July.

At 39, Taylor had initially thought about transitioning into coaching but has been persuaded by Zimbabwe Cricket's MD, Givemore Makoni, to return to playing. The goal is to feature in the 2027 ODI World Cup, which Zimbabwe will co-host. Taylor will be eligible to play again starting July 25 this year.

"I still want to play and I believe I could make an impact as a player," said Taylor. "I look at where I'm at physically and mentally and if I didn't feel I could do it, I wouldn't bother. Givemore has really supported me on this. He sort of shut down the coaching role for now and said, 'Can you play and try to push yourself up until the 2027 World Cup?' Granted I'll be 41 then but with sobriety, I'm living my truest form."

Taylor opened up about his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction, which coincided with an encounter with match-fixers who tried to coerce him into spot-fixing after filming him using cocaine. The fixers threatened to release the video unless he complied. Rather than go through with the fix, Taylor made the difficult decision to retire from international cricket in September 2021, though he didn't explain the reasons at the time. It wasn’t until four months later that he reported the incident to the ICC and shared his story publicly in January 2022.

Taylor also checked himself into a rehabilitation centre in Zimbabwe's Nyanga region on the Mozambique border.

Under the terms of his sanction, Taylor is prohibited from playing any officially recognized cricket or training with domestic or international teams. Instead, he has been training at the facilities of St John's College, a school in Harare.

Taylor feels inspired by his co senior players, who are still representing Zimbabwe in their late 30s.

"That's been inspiring to me. If you look statistically, they're at the top of the game. They're still some of the biggest contributors in the national side, and that's really given me that hope and belief that I can do this," he said. "And it's also about me just adding real service to the group. It's not an egotistical individual coming back trying to steal any headlines or anything like that. I've been humbled properly. I look forward to really just adding value, which I probably didn't do to the best of my ability when I was there before."