TWO years after he quit international cricket, to try his luck in England’s county cricket scene: it appears as if former Zimbabwean international, Brendan Taylor, is still as relevant as ever in his own native land.

Whether it be signing off his international career with a brilliant century- on the biggest stage of them all (ICC World Cup), waking up in the wrong car after a night of celebratory drinks in England or sparking rumors of a potential comeback by simply showing up to Chevrons practice session; it appears everything the 31-year-old does or says makes front page news.

Such is to be expected from the talents that is Brendon Taylor, who served his country well in 23 Tests, 167 ODIs and 26 Twenty20 matches stretched over 11 years.

However, Taylor’s latest shenanigans, for lack of a better word, certainly do the cake.

After Zimbabwe’s disappointing 106-run loss to Afghanistan, last weekend, Taylor took to social media to defend his fellow countrymen and former teammates after what was a humiliating day in the office.

“Ex-players and commentators always sit back and chip away because it’s easy watching from the comfort of their homes or from a commentary box but forget how tough it can be in the middle,” wrote the former Zimbabwean skipper on his Facebook page.

As noble as intentions were, after all the Chevrons had just been bundled out for 54 runs by an Associate side, Taylor did not get time to expand on his point as his people began putting in their two cents in.

In hindsight; his post was as polarizing as one could get as it divided opinion with many siding with the former Zimbabwean skipper while others chose not to.

One man in particular, Mark Vermeulen, took offence to Taylor post and decided to chew into the former captain.

The two engaged in a heated verbal spat, that saw both men swing for the fences in their efforts not to only defend their stance on Zimbabwe’s performance, but knock their opponent out clean.

Harsh words were exchanged, very few facts offered and at the end of the day no consensus was reached.

For what Taylor’s Facebook post did or did not succeed in doing, it certainly did put the spotlight on Chevrons and their poor performance.

For one, the numbers do not paint a good picture.

For one, Zimbabwe lost yet another series (3-2).

Better still, they lost a series to a non-Test playing nation, but then again Zimbabwe has not been a real Test playing nation in some time.

In fact; one can go so far as to say that Zimbabwe is a paper Test-playing nation, or, to be more diplomatic, a Test playing nation in name only.

Zimbabwe is ranked 10th, and has only played as many matches as opposed to the rest of the nine other Test playing nations whose matches range between 50-19.

Since 2014, when the Future Tours Program was decentralized and moved to a bilateral structure, Zimbabwe has only played about eight Test matches and these have come against lowly ranked Test playing nations.

The Chevrons  are yet to play Australia, England, India, Pakistan, Australia or West Indies in the game’s longer version.

In the shorter version, their latest opposition Afghanistan is ranked a place above them at number 10.

This is despite the fact that Zimbabwe has played 24 more games than their Asian counterparts.

Also, Afghanistan appears to have Zimbabwe’s number, in this format, and currently enjoys a better head-to-head record.

Since 2014, the two teams have met a total of 19 times in the one-day arena, with the Asians winning 11 times while Zimbabwe have won eight.

In fact Afghanistan are yet to lose an ODI series to Zimbabwe, as they have won the last three tours 3-2.

Their 2014 encounter ended in a 2-2 draw.

They also enjoy the same advantage in Twenty20 matches, with the Asians winning the only two series, during the 2015/16 season, by an identical 2-0 margin.

Solely based on the rankings alone, a loss to Afghanistan, as heartbreaking as it is, should not come as that much of a shock.

As far as the most recent meeting, between the two nations, one can attribute Zimbabwe’s loss to a combination of bad weather, luck on the part of the Asians and the team’s well-documented troubles in the batting department.

With the exception of the weather, all these are not really new things.

While the 54-all out is probably going to go down as the only lasting image of the series, one needs to remember how Zimbabwe had fought valiantly to come back from being two games down to drawing even.

The weather contributed significantly, as three of the five matches had to rely on the Duckworth-Lewis method to determine a winner.

In the very first game, Zimbabwe were in control of the game, three runs ahead, until the wicket of Ryan Burl, two balls before the rains came down, swung the game in the Asians favour.

Zimbabwe showed tremendous improvement in the bowling department throughout the series.

The trio of Graeme Cremer, Tendai Chatara and Christopher Mpofu were amongst the best bowlers of the series, claiming a collective 30 wickets between them.

In fact, Mpofu finished the series as the top wicket-taker with 12 scalps, while Chatara was tied with Afghanistan’s top bowlers Rashid Khan and Mohammed Nabi with 10 each.

Cremer too, was not too far behind as his eight wickets tied him with Afghanistan’s other chief wicket taker Gulbadin Naib.

For what the others lacked in wickets, they made up for in efficiency.

Sean Williams (three wickets) finished with the third best economy of the series.

His 2.72 paled in comparison only to Naib and Nabi.

The batting department, however, appears to have been Zimbabwe’s biggest weakness as 184 was the team’s highest total of the entire rain affect series.

The Chevrons scored 184 in their failed attempt to chase 238, in the second One-Day-International of the series.

The Asians won that match by 54 runs.

The returning Solomon Mire finished as the team’s highest run-scorer, as his 108 runs saw him finish fifth on the charts.

While the entire series failed to produce any a centurions, Zimbabwe had only two batsman- Mire and Tarisai Musakanda- scoring half-centuries.

This is opposed to Afghanistan, who had three batsmen- in Rahmat Shah, Asghar Stanikazi and Mohammad Shahzad scoring half-centuries.

That alone is hardly anything to separate the two teams.