| Player: | BB McCullum |
DateLine: 3rd June 2008
The Dunedin-born cricketer plays the dual role of wicket-keeper/batsman for his team. However, he made his ODI debut in the New Zealand side purely as a batsman, in the 2001-02 VB Series in Australia. There he made a name for himself with some powerful hitting and ever since then, has developed a reputation for the same.
Later, he started keeping wickets too and thus, made his Test debut against South Africa in 2003-04. He is notorious for hitting the ball hard and making quick runs, scoring a fifty off only 20-balls against Canada in the 2007 ODI World Cup. Recently, in a home series against England, he hit 261 runs at a strike rate of 127. He has two Test centuries to his credit at a very good strike rate of 63, while he is yet to translate the same form in the ODIs. As concerns his part as a wicket-keeper, he has scalped 95 catches and 6 stumpings in Tests, while at the same time, pouching 143 catches and affecting 13 stumpings in the ODIs.
His hard hitting reputation saw him auctioned at the highest bid for any New Zealand player for the Indian Premier League, where the Kolkata Knight Riders bought him for a whopping $700,000. He began the tournament in style, scoring 158 runs off 73 balls with 10 fours and 13 sixes, the highest score in T20 yet.
