A promising talent in his 34 white-ball appearances for England, Taylor was forced into retirement at just 26 years of age due to a previously undiagnosed heart condition.

[6][7] Taylor attended Maidwell Hall and then Shrewsbury School where he studied for his A-levels and played for their cricket team.

"[6] In his early teens, Taylor had links to the Worcestershire academy[10] and played for his local team Loughborough Town and Shrewsbury School.

Leicestershire coach, Tim Boon, said that whether Taylor played depended on the pitch and if it merited an extra batsman.

[13] Taylor was selected and batted at seven and scored eight runs before being trapped leg before wicket (lbw) in his only innings by Kabir Ali.

[16][17] Despite two late victories, including a win in the return fixture against Derbyshire at Grace Road where Taylor contributed 10, Leicestershire finished bottom of their group in the 2008 Twenty20 Cup.

[20] The match ended in a draw and Taylor made his maiden half-century of 51 from 109 balls before being caught off Shakib Al Hasan.

He top scored with 43 not out in a narrow six-run victory against Derbyshire and hit 37 in a loss against Surrey before being caught off youngster Stuart Meaker to end his Leicestershire season on a high.

[8][23][24] Taylor played for Leicestershire against the West Indies as part of their 2009 tour of England but struggled, recording scores of just four and five in a drawn three-day match.

[34] In the second innings of the match Taylor surpassed 1,000 runs for the season making him the youngest player to achieve this feat for Leicestershire.

[35] In 17 first-class matches for Leicestershire in 2009 Taylor scored 1,207 runs, hitting three centuries and six half-centuries at an average of 57.47, making him the sixth-highest run-scorer in Division Two that season.

[36] Despite, Taylor's efforts Leicestershire still finished at the bottom of the Division, making it a disappointing season where eleven of the sixteen games were drawn.

[53] Taylor ended the season with his sixth century, this time against Northamptonshire as he hit 156 before being caught off the bowling of David Burton.

[61] Impressive performances in the series, including an innings of 168 not out, meant that many were calling for Taylor to be elevated up to the full squad when Jonathan Trott was injured in the second Test against India,[62][63] although in the end Ravi Bopara was preferred by the selectors.

[64] Taylor was not too disheartened and on 12 August made 106 whilst captaining the England Lions to victory against Sri Lanka in a one-day match.

[66] Leicestershire's captain, Matthew Hoggard, criticised the approach as "rude" and accusing Warwickshire of using their money to attract players.

[73][74] Following his move to Nottinghamshire, Taylor endured a tricky start to a season in which poor weather and low scores prevailed.

[76] England missed out on reaching the final, which was eventually won by Pakistan, Taylor hit his highest score of 43 against Sri Lanka in an English defeat.

In February 2011 Taylor was picked for the England Lions, who had been invited by the West Indies Cricket Board to participate in the Regional Four Day Competition.

[86] Taylor enjoyed a successful series scoring 527 runs from six matches for the Lions,[87] including his seventh first-class century.

[61] In the four-day game against Sri Lanka, Taylor was in good form, making scores of 76 and 98 as the match ended in a draw.

He played in the final two games of the series although he failed to make another significant score, hitting a combined total of 12 runs in the two innings.

In the first game of the series he made a duck in the defeat to Australia, but performed better in the next match against India, hitting an unbeaten 56 to help guide England to victory.

Taylor continued his impressive form at the 2015 Cricket World Cup opener against Australia, where he scored an unbeaten 98 in a losing cause.

He was involved in the controversial dismissal of James Anderson in the same match, which arguably prevented him from going on to make a maiden ODI century.

In February 2015, Taylor was awarded an England increment contract after representing the team in 10 ODIs in a period of 12 months.

After being selected for the squad for the tour of the UAE following his good performances in the ODI series against Australia, he wasn't picked for the First and Second Test.

He scored his second half century of the series, an unbeaten 67 in the third ODI as England chased down Pakistan's target of 209 in convincing fashion.

On 12 April 2016, it was announced that Taylor had been forced to retire from cricket following the diagnosis of a serious heart condition called arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC), that is similar to that of Fabrice Muamba.

[107] After playing retirement Taylor became involved in coaching,[107] gave talks, and appeared as an occasional summariser on the BBC Radio cricket commentary show Test Match Special.