He smashed back-to-back hundreds in the last two one-dayers, and deflated the toothless Indian attack with controlled stroke-play. And now he wants more.
"I am probably in the best form of my life," he conceded, counting his five hundreds in the last eight games. "I am hitting the ball very well and I am in the best mindset that I have ever been in my career.
"But I don't want to get too carried away. I just want to go with the same routine and hopefully have some more success," he said, sending a clear signal to the Indian camp two days before the first Test here.
The 29-year-old, who is New Zealand's batting mainstay, is looking at a possible whitewash in the Tests too. "Yes, but I think we will just take it one game at a time. This wicket will have a little bit in it and I am sure the bowlers will look forward to exploiting that. Whatever happens, we have got to do it to the best of our abilities on that day and see what happens."
He is wary of the Indian side though, if not a backlash. "(Umesh)Yadav and Zaheer Khan will add a different dimension to the team. There is a lot of experience in Zaheer, he is a world-class bowler and I am sure they will prove a point after a disappointing One-day series. They are still a very good side and I am sure they will bounce back in the next match." The former NZ captain has left that complex and controversial phase behind though. "A lot of people never saw that side of me, but it was nice to come out of it. I am mentally a lot stronger than I probably thought I was. I am pretty happy with where I am at and a lot of people that I have talked about so far have helped me out in that process."
He is happy that things have fallen into place within the team, especially after the captaincy episode threatened to tear it apart. "Any time you are scoring runs and winning games, it makes things a lot easier. It also contributes towards a happy team."
Taylor shares a good working relationship with Brendon McCullum, who took over the reins from him. "I have been teammates with Brendon for a long time, right from under-19s. We are good teammates. We will have to wait and see, we might be teammates overseas as well," he quipped, referring to the upcoming IPL auction.
He, however, sounds like he misses playing the role of a leader. "I think captaincy brought the best out of me as a batsman, and I don't think anything has changed. If I see something, I always tell, regardless of who is the skipper. Even before I was captain, I'd always tell (Daniel) Vettori little things. There is no use thinking these ideas and keeping them to yourself. You got to tell them and then at the end of the day, it's the captain's decision whether to use it or not."
He has opted for the next best thing though in the changed scenario. "I lead by scoring runs and trying to get as many people to follow as possible. As a senior batsman, you need to lead from the front and hopefully I am doing that," he says.
He is particularly thankful to Kiwi legend Martin Crowe for taking his game to a higher level. "He has been outstanding. He's been a world-class player and it's nice to get him to look at your technique. He has gone through lots of ups and downs in his life, it's nice for him to pass that knowledge on to me and help me to deal with different situations."
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