Brendon McCullum has stepped up to the national side as a wicketkeeper-batsman after an outstanding career in international youth cricket, where he proved capable of dominating opposition attacks. He found it hard to replicate that at the highest level at first, although there were occasional fireworks at domestic level. But he finally made his mark in England in 2004, with 200 runs in the Test series, including an entertaining 96 at Lord's. After that near-miss he finally brought up his maiden century in Bangladesh in October, with 143 at Dhaka. He added another hundred in the two-day victory over Zimbabwe in August 2005, and now needs to reproduce that form against the stronger teams. McCullum first made the New Zealand one-day side as a batsman, in the 2001-02 VB Series in Australia, where he made the acquaintance of Brett Lee, who has since let him have more than one beamer, to widespread outrage. Two years later McCullum, by now keeping wicket, forced his way past Robbie Hart into the Test side for the 2003-04 series against South Africa.

At Napier in April 2005 he narrowly missed another Test century, falling lbw to Lasith Malinga for 99 in the match where Malinga's low-slung action caused several batsmen to complain that they were "losing" the ball in the umpires' trousers. But McCullum biffed two sixes and ten fours in that innings, and had onlookers murmuring the name Gilchrist. He showed the occasional glimpse of his power during the 2007 World Cup, such as a 20-ball half-century against Canada, but an average of 23 didn't do his talent justice.

McCullum bounced back with a series of energetic half-centuries towards the end of the year, the highlight of which was an unbeaten 80 from 28 balls against Bangladesh on the last day of the year. His big-hitting continued during a five-match ODI series with England at home, where he hit 261runs at a strike-rate of 128.57. In February, McCullum was bought for US$700,000, the biggest winner from New Zealand, by the Indian Premier League's Kolkata franchise and launched the tournament with an unbeaten 158, the highest total in Twenty20 cricket. McCullum arrived in England after the IPL hype and scored two fifties in the three Tests before contributing handily in New Zealand's 3-1 ODI win afterwards. A maiden hundred came next, albeit against a threadbare Ireland outfit, but his stocks continue to rise.
Cricinfo staff July 2008

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