Brendon McCullum

[Howsie]

What the heck is up with him, he has so much batting talent but really hasn't improved that much. He dominated Youth teams and came into the NZ team at an early age, should he be better then what he is?

And what about his technique, how would you rate it?

 

[Inferiority]

His techinique is similar to that of Dilshan. Both hit or miss type of batsmen. The main problem with his batting is his defence, it's woeful. Too often he picks the wrong ball to slog.

 

[Howsie]

His techinique is similar to that of Dilshan. Both hit or miss type of batsmen. The main problem with his batting is his defence, it's woeful. Too often he picks the wrong ball to slog.

Slogging isn't his problem, but your'e right his defense is pretty woeful.

 

[Richard]

What the heck is up with him, he has so much batting talent but really hasn't improved that much. He dominated Youth teams and came into the NZ team at an early age, should he be better then what he is?

Players who dominate in youth cricket have absolutely no guarantee to be placed on them. Some don't even make it at domestic level. Some make international cricket but turn-out to be merely average-quality players (like McCullum to date).

Anyone who hangs really big hopes on someone based on youth cricket is taking a rather bigger leap of faith than they should.

 

[Noble One]

How outstanding a youth record did Brendon McCullum hold?

The cricketer is 27 years of age now, and yet his performances as a youth are still brought up. I'd like to hear from a knowledgeable poster who may bring to light some of his early performances.

All I recall of McCullum the youth cricketer is a poor U/19 WC in 2000, along with a moderate series of performances against the Australian cricket academy in 2001.

 

[Howsie]

Players who dominate in youth cricket have absolutely no guarantee to be placed on them. Some don't even make it at domestic level. Some make international cricket but turn-out to be merely average-quality players (like McCullum to date).

Anyone who hangs really big hopes on someone based on youth cricket is taking a rather bigger leap of faith than they should.

Name me one player that averaged over 100 in Youth cricket and didn't turn out to be a good batsmen, barring McCullum of course.

 

[Howsie]

How outstanding a youth record did Brendon McCullum hold?

The cricketer is 27 years of age now, and yet his performances as a youth are still brought up. I'd like to hear from a knowledgeable poster who may bring to light some of his early performances.

All I recall of McCullum the youth cricketer is a poor U/19 WC in 2000, along with a moderate series of performances against the Australian cricket academy in 2001.

He averaged 100 in test youth cricket.

 

[nz0003]

You never know when you're going to get a decent innings from McCullum, he's pretty inconsistent but when he comes off hes good too watch, you get the good and the bad basically.

 

[Richard]

Name me one player that averaged over 100 in Youth cricket and didn't turn out to be a good batsmen, barring McCullum of course.

I tend to pay so little attention to under-19 Test averages that I don't know anyone who did nor anyone who did not.

 

[Noble One]

He averaged 100 in test youth cricket.

Based on his statsguru record?

Three dominating U/19 games against South Africa. I'm sure his reputation was based on more performances than one brilliant series.

Star performer for youth Otago teams? Local club cricket?

 

[profernity]

I'm not sure what his role in T20 and ODIs is currently. Sometimes he goes the slog-at-everything route, at other times he appears to attempt being the innings anchor. Or is he supposed to be both? And whose idea is it?

 

[Uppercut]

What are you talking about? Brendon McCullum is awesome. Best man behind the stumps in international cricket and averages somewhere around 30 in all forms of the game. Since when is that disappointing?

 

[Howsie]

An average of 30 is pretty, well average don't you think?

For the amount of talent this guy has he should be a lot better.

 

[profernity]

What are you talking about? Brendon McCullum is awesome. Best man behind the stumps in international cricket and averages somewhere around 30 in all forms of the game. Since when is that disappointing?

It became disappointing the day wicketkeeper-batsmen were increasingly judged upon batting skill alone, and oh you can keep a bit, good-o. It becomes more important for teams which lack specialists, being just a keeper looks like wasting a spot in the batting lineup. It all comes down to what McCullum is expected to be. To me, it seems he's expected to be as much of everything as possible (captain, keeping, run rate accelerator, innings anchor). How much of that is personal expectation, team expectation, or necessity, I'm not sure.

 

[Richard]

What are you talking about? Brendon McCullum is awesome. Best man behind the stumps in international cricket and averages somewhere around 30 in all forms of the game. Since when is that disappointing?

Since inflated expectations.

People see McCullum look absolutely a million dollars when he nails a shot and think he should be doing it more often.

McCullum is in fact a good Test wicketkeeper-batsman and a useful ODI opener. But some people seem to have had much higher expectations - expectations that were probably always wholly unrealistic.

 

[Uppercut]

An average of 30 is pretty, well average don't you think?

No, it's pretty excellent actually. Of wicket keepers who have played more than twenty tests in the past 20 years, McCullum is seventh in the list of test batting averages. Those who are ahead of him: Flower, Gilchrist, Sangakkara, Dhoni, Stewart and Akmal. None of them played in a country as notoriously difficult for batting as McCullum, and he's arguably the best with the gloves on that list.

I'm not sure why expectations for McCullum are so unrealistically high, because it's quite out of keeping with the general Kiwi attitude.

 

[TT Boy]

Big fan of McCullum but I wish he put away playing on the move. Far better cricketer when he plays from the crease.

 

[Richard]

No, it's pretty excellent actually. Of wicket keepers who have played more than twenty tests in the past 20 years, McCullum is seventh in the list of test batting averages. Those who are ahead of him: Flower, Gilchrist, Sangakkara, Dhoni, Stewart and Akmal. None of them played in a country as notoriously difficult for batting as McCullum, and he's arguably the best with the gloves on that list.

In fact Akmal is a dreadful wicketkeeper; Flower was a pretty poor one; and Sangakkara, though a good one, has never done the job with great continuity.

So it could fairly be said that McCullum is the fourth-best Test wicketkeeper-batsman of the last two decades, behind Stewart, Gilchrist and Dhoni. In fact, probably joint third-best because I really don't think there's a lot between him and Dhoni and both have clearly got plenty of Test cricket ahead of them.

 

[Athlai]

No, it's pretty excellent actually. Of wicket keepers who have played more than twenty tests in the past 20 years, McCullum is seventh in the list of test batting averages. Those who are ahead of him: Flower, Gilchrist, Sangakkara, Dhoni, Stewart and Akmal. None of them played in a country as notoriously difficult for batting as McCullum, and he's arguably the best with the gloves on that list.

I'm not sure why expectations for McCullum are so unrealistically high, because it's quite out of keeping with the general Kiwi attitude.

Technically McCullum is about the age Gilchrist was when he debuted in Tests. So who nears where he could end up, still a lot more cricket from him, and that batting age peak of 28-31/2 to come.

 

[chaminda_00]

Name me one player that averaged over 100 in Youth cricket and didn't turn out to be a good batsmen, barring McCullum of course.

They may have not average 100 odd, but all these guys had brillant Youth performances, but didn't step up at International level and some at domestic level:
Upul Tharanga, Vinod Kambli, Jehan Muburak, Tom Cooper, Moises Henriques, Chamara Silva, Tamim Iqbal, Mohammad Ashraful, Shahriar Nafees, Aftab Ahmed, Jaques Rudolph, Chamara Kapugedera, Hasan Raza, Owais Shah etc

And there plenty more. Performances at youth level have little to do with ability to performance at International level or even domestic level. Some players just peak at different stages.

McCullum problem is that he doesn't know his role in the side. Do they want him to play as a front line batsmen or as an aggressive top order batsmen, who plays around the other guys, or a lower order hitter.