Brendon McCullum

Brendon McCullum Biography

Brendon Barrie McCullum, popularly known as Brendon "Baz" McCullum, is a former New Zealand international cricketer. He was born on 27 September 1981 in Dunedin, New Zealand.

McCullum originally played in the side as a wicketkeeper batsman. McCullum is a right handed aggressive batsman and he is also used sometimes as a right arm bowler. He is considered to be one of the best fielder in cricket with his quick reflexes and flexibility.

McCullum posted the fastest ever Test century in 54 balls in his last Test outing on 20 February 2016. He became the first New Zealander to score a triple hundred in a Test match.

Background

He played cricket for many clubs like the Otago cricket team, Canterbury, Glamorgan, New South Wales, Sussex, Brisbane Heat, Warwickshire, Middlesex, Lahore Qalandars, Rangpur Riders.

He has also been the part of Kolkata Knight Riders, Kochi Tuskers Kerala, Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Lions in the Indian Premier League.

Debut

McCullum played his debut ODI match for New Zealand against Australia in January 2002 at the Sydney Cricket Ground during the tri-nation VB series.

However, he could manage to score only 5 runs in the 15 balls he faced but later he worked hard and continued the good form and eventually became one of the best and aggressive batsman for New Zealand.

McCullum played his first Test match for New Zealand at the age of 23, during the three Test South Africa tour of New Zealand series, in March 2004.

Rise to Glory

McCullum became the first New Zealand cricketer to score a triple hundred in a Test match by scoring 302 runs against India in February 2014. He also became the first New Zealander to score 1000 test runs in a calendar year by scoring 1164 runs in the year 2014.

He played a watch winning knock against Bangladesh by scoring 123 runs in a T20 international game and also set the record of the second highest individual score in IPL by scoring 158 not out for the Kolkata Knight Riders against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2008.

Club Career

McCullum plays currently with the Otago Volts at provincial level, the Brisbane Heat in Australia's Big Bash League, the Lahore Qalandars in Pakistan Super League and the Trinbago Knight Riders in the CPL.

He played for Kolkata Knight Riders from 2008–2013 except for the year 2011, where he played for the Kochi Tuskers Kerala. He played the 2014 and 2015 seasons for the Chennai Super Kings. He was part of the Gujarat Lions in 2016 and 2017 season.

In the 2018 IPL auction, McCullum was bought by the Royal Challengers Bangalore team for an amount of Rs. 3.6 crore. He will join the forces with the likes of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Chris Woakes.

Captaincy

McCullum has been praised for his captaincy and for his ability to inspire a nation and lifting New Zealand to heights they had never seen before for which he also did plenty of great things with the bat in hand.

Since taking over the captaincy from Ross Taylor in December 2012, McCullum led the Black Caps to 11 wins, nine losses and 11 draws in test matches. His winning ratio of 37.93% is the best of any New Zealand captain and win ratio of 59.43% from 56 ODIs as captain is also the best for any New Zealander with more than 30 games as captain to his name.

He is also the highest runs scorer by the captain in his farewell test and first captain to score a century in his farewell test.

Records

McCullum is currently the leading career scorer in T20 international cricket and is the first and so far only player to have scored two centuries and 2000 runs in T20 internationals.

He also holds the record for the highest score by a wicketkeeper, most centuries, most fifties, most sixes and most fours in the format.

Retirement

He retired from all forms of international cricket on 24 February 2016. After retirement, he has confirmed to return to Brisbane Heat for Big Bash League.

He is also acting presently as a mentor and captain for Lahore Qalandars franchise in Pakistan Super League.