He made his debut for the New Zealand team in international cricket on 1 March 2006, in a one-day match against the West Indies. He became the second male player of Samoan heritage to play for New Zealand after Murphy Su’a. He scored only 15 runs in the match, which New Zealand won the match by 91 runs.

Taylor is a clean striker of the ball, particularly any ball through leg side, and a useful off-break bowler. Taylor scored his maiden one day century in front of a delighted crowd in Napier, playing against Sri Lanka on 28 December 2006. The innings included 12 fours and 6 sixes. Unluckily for him, New Zealand were comprehensively beaten in that game, by a blistering knock by Sanath Jayasuriya. He also suffered dehydration and required a short hospital trip during the second innings. Taylor hit 84 against Australia in their opening game in the 2006–07 Commonwealth Bank Series, but lost the match at the end. He has also established one of the most potent no.3-no.4 top order partnership with Kane Williamson since the latter made his debut. However, they were also involved in 12 run outs across all forms of international cricket as of 26 January 2015 when they are both at the crease.

Taylor scored his second century in his ODI career on 18 February 2007 against Australia. He scored 117, the 2nd highest score by a New Zealander against Australia at that time. He scored his maiden Test century in March 2008 at Hamilton in the first Test of the 2007–08 series against England and went on to be the leading run scorer for the series.

Taylor was picked up by the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 2008 Indian Premier League auction. An innings of note was a destructive 81* off 33 balls against the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2009. He was bumper hit in Royal Challengers Bangalore, he was loved for his powerful leg side shots. He had won many hearts of Royal Challengers Bangalore fans while playing for them.

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. His third Test century, an innings of 151 runs off 204 balls, came against India at Napier in March 2009. His fourth Test century, in the next Test, was a 107 which delayed India’s victory long enough to force a draw.

Taylor also played for Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and for his domestic team, the Central Districts Stags. Taylor scored a match-winning innings of 81 from just 33 balls for Royal Challengers (RCB) against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to seal an improbable victory for his team in 2009.

His domestic team in New Zealand is the Central Stags, in 2009/10 he played for the Victorian Bushrangers in the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash as one of two overseas players (the other being Dwayne Bravo from the West Indies). In the 2009-10 HRV Cup Final against the Auckland Aces, Taylor scored a match-winning 80 off 30 balls, and in a partnership with Kieran Noema-Barnett they scored 133 runs from 53 balls bowled. Taylor also hit Michael Bates for 27 in one over, including three consecutive sixes. In total Taylor hit eight sixes and five fours for the Stags. In 2010 he played for Durham in the Friends Provident T20 tournament, his most substantial contribution being a brutal 80 not out from only 33 balls including 3 fours and 9 sixes.

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 top-scored with 70 and New Zealand won by two wickets with four balls to spare. Taylor was also awarded the Man of the Match and donated the $NZ 500 prize to the Lansdowne Cricket Club in Masterton.

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. Taylor scored centuries in all three tests in the 2013/14 series against the West Indies. In the first Test, Taylor made his first Test match double-century and highest test score of unbeaten 217 in a composed and classy innings. Taylor’s 12th ODI century against Pakistan at Dubai coincides with the 100th century for the Black Caps.

Taylor is of part-Samoan descent, his mother being from the Samoa village of Saoluafata, and also has family connections to Fasito’o-Uta and his father from New Zealand. Taylor was educated at Wairarapa College and Palmerston North Boys High School and was a hockey player before shifting his focus to cricket. Taylor married his wife Victoria on 25 June 2011. They have three children.

In the 2011 auction, Taylor was sold to the Rajasthan Royals for ₹4.6 crore (equivalent to ₹7.6 crore or US$1.1 million in 2019).

He made his then highest ODI score of 131* which came off 124 balls against Pakistan on 8 March 2011 at the ICC Cricket World Cup. His innings included seven (7) sixes and eight (8) fours and contributed to New Zealand making 127 runs in the final 9 overs of the game for their highest total ever against Pakistan (302) in World Cup. With this century, Taylor became only the fourth batsman in history of the game that scored an ODI century in a birthday, after Vinod Kambli, Sachin Tendulkar, and Sanath Jayasuriya.

He was traded from Delhi Daredevils where he played a season to Pune Warriors India for Ashish Nehra in 2013.

Taylor has also played English cricket for Norwich and Coltishall Wanderers in Norfolk. He was their key player and he was consistent in scoring runs. In 2016 and 2017, he played for Sussex and Nottinghamshire in 2018.

In December 2016, after the Test against Pakistan at Hamilton, Taylor underwent surgery to remove a pterygium on his left eye. He was out of action for several weeks, thus missing the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy series in Australia.

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 April 2019, he was named in New Zealand’s squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. On 5 June 2019, in New Zealand’s match against Bangladesh, Taylor played in his 400th international match for New Zealand in which he scored a match-winning 82. He also became the 2nd batsman to score 8000 ODI runs for New Zealand, after Stephen Fleming, as well as outscoring him in the same match to become New Zealand’s top scorer in ODIs. He followed it with 48 off 52 against Afghanistan in another successful run-chase.

He has joined Middlesex for the 2019 Royal London One-day Cup competition. In July 2020, he was named in the Guyana Amazon Warriors squad for the 2020 Caribbean Premier League.

On 21 February 2020, Taylor became the first player ever to play 100 matches in each format of the game T20I, ODI and Tests during the first Test match against India, and became the fourth New Zealand player to play 100 Test matches after Stephen Fleming, Daniel Vettori and Brendon McCullum and 66th overall.