[4][5] Taylor was a key member of the New Zealand team that won the 2019–2021 ICC World Test Championship, where he scored the winning boundary in the final.

[13] He was educated at Wairarapa College and Palmerston North Boys High School[14] and was a hockey player before shifting his focus to cricket.

[17] He played for Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel in the 2013 and 2014 editions of the Caribbean Premier League and for St Lucia Zouks in 2015.

[17] Taylor made his full international debut for New Zealand on 1 March 2006, in a one-day match against the West Indies.

Taylor scored his maiden one day century in front of a delighted crowd in Napier, playing against Sri Lanka on 28 December 2006.

[34] Taylor hit 84 against Australia in their opening game in the 2006–07 Commonwealth Bank Series, but lost the match at the end.

[38] Taylor scored what was then a Test match career-best of 154* against England at Old Trafford in May 2008, a brilliant innings including 5 sixes and 17 fours.

[41] Taylor captained New Zealand for the first time in an ODI against Australia in Napier on 3 March 2010, when Daniel Vettori dropped out of the side less than 30 minutes before the start with a neck ache.

Taylor was also awarded the Man of the Match and donated the $NZ 500 prize to the Lansdowne Cricket Club in Masterton.

His innings included seven sixes and eight fours and contributed to New Zealand making 127 runs in the final 9 overs of the game to reach the score of 301.

[46][47] In a match against Australia at Hamilton in March 2010, Taylor made the fastest Test century ever by a New Zealander, bringing up his hundred off only 81 balls.

[56] Ross Taylor also became only the sixth player in ODI history to score centuries against all test playing nations and first from New Zealand.

[58] On 28 January 2019, Taylor became the third New Zealand batsman to complete 1000 runs in ODIs against India, he achieved this feat when he was batting on 14* and went on to score 93 (106).

In the tournament's first semi-final, he top scored for New Zealand with 74 runs as they reached the World Cup final for second consecutive time.

He could only make 15 runs, before being wrongly given LBW off Mark Wood's bowling, in the final as New Zealand lost it on boundary count.

[73] On 30 December 2021, Taylor announced his retirement from international cricket at the end of the 2021/22 summer, with his final Test series being against Bangladesh, and last ODIs against the Netherlands and Australia.

[74] In the 2022 Queen's Birthday and Platinum Jubilee Honours, Taylor was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to cricket and Pacific communities.

[76] In his autobiography published in 2022, titled Ross Taylor: Black & White, he revealed that he faced racism within New Zealand Cricket, as some players and officials made comments about his ethnicity.

[77] Belonging to Samoan heritage, Taylor stated that he experienced racism during his international career with the New Zealand Cricket Team.